More buses to be made available for Idul Fitri

Bus operators in Jakarta will provide an additional 300 buses to accommodate travelers returning to their hometowns for the Islamic holiday of Idul Fitri next month.

The city’s land transportation organization (Organda), which includes bus operators, said Tuesday the extra fleet would be an increase on the 6,066 buses provided last year.

“We’ve decided to provide more buses to facilitate more travelers, including those who couldn’t get train tickets, especially for routes to Central and East Java,” said Organda Jakarta deputy head T.R. Panjaitan.

The increase was announced after a recent meeting between Organda and the Jakarta Transportation Agency.

Panjaitan said the additional buses were needed because bus operators had predicted the number of companies or other private parties providing free rides from the capital, locally known as mudik, would be far less than in previous years.

Idul Fitri this year falls on Sept. 21 and 22. The exodus from the city usually peaks about three to four days before.

Hendah Sunugroho, the transportation agency’s head of land transportation, said his office was expecting the number of travelers using land transportation this year to increase by between 9 and 10 percent, up from 2.3 million last year.