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Finishing touches put on Tirtonadi bus terminal ahead of Idul Fitri
Cozy and clean: Passengers sit in the waiting hall of the Tirtonadi bus terminal in Surakarta, Central Java
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Cozy and clean: Passengers sit in the waiting hall of the Tirtonadi bus terminal in Surakarta, Central Java. Street vendors no longer hang around the terminal as the waiting hall has been equipped with 132 kiosks for vendors. (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas) (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)
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span class="inline inline-none">Cozy and clean: Passengers sit in the waiting hall of the Tirtonadi bus terminal in Surakarta, Central Java. Street vendors no longer hang around the terminal as the waiting hall has been equipped with 132 kiosks for vendors. (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)
The Surakarta city administration is fast-tracking the completion of the Tirtonadi bus terminal in anticipation of the homebound travelers who will flock to the city ahead of Idul Fitri.
Head of administrative affairs in the Tirtonadi technical working unit, Joko Sutriyanto, said this year's project development focused on the eastern part of the terminal.
According to him, the first floor of the terminal would be completed 15 days prior to Idul Fitri, or two months before the initial target.
'We hope to start operating the passenger entrance door in the eastern part of the terminal by July 13,' Joko said when contacted recently.
Currently, the eastern gate and the central gate are not yet open to the public, and passengers can only access the western and northern gates.
The renovation of the Tirtonadi bus terminal began in 2009 with the goal of making it the country's first type A bus terminal offering a service experience similar to that of an international airport.
A type-A terminal is large and serves intercity and inter-province buses, while a type-B terminal serves only intercity buses. A type-C terminal is the smallest and serves small public minibuses or minivans.
Instead of small paper tickets, passengers at Tirtonadi now receive boarding passes for their bus ride and enter the terminal using an electronic access card. One entry costs Rp 500 (less than 5 US cents).
'We applied the boarding pass system to better guarantee the city's income and to prevent leaks,' Joko said.
The terminal also now has free trolleys and two air-conditioned waiting rooms, which have LCD monitors with the bus departure schedule. Free Internet access is also available in these two rooms.
One of these is a VIP waiting room, intended for inter-province passengers, while the other serves intercity passengers. The VIP waiting room can be accessed directly from the western parking lot, while the regular one can be accessed through the entrance door for passengers arriving in buses.
The VIP waiting room is not yet open for use, however, but Joko promised that seven days prior to Idul Fitri, which might fall around the end of July, it would be open for inter-province passengers.
Ira Permatasari, a passenger heading to Jakarta, said the regular waiting room was comfortable enough and she was happy there were no street vendors inside the terminal.
'Unfortunately, the parking lot is located far behind the terminal,' she said.
According to the master plan, the renovation of the terminal's first floor cost Rp 120 billion provided by the central government and the city administration.
With the first floor nearly done, the city is now looking to develop the second floor into a shopping center.
That project, Joko said, would require investment of Rp 215 billion from the private sector.
Head of the city's Transportation Communication and Informatics Agency, Yosca Herman Soedradjad, previously said 10 percent of the terminals 5-hectare lot would be dedicated to open green space.
'We will also regulate that the buses' engines are not turned on all the time to prevent the terminal from being flooded with exhaust,' he said.
A special room, according to Yosca, would also be prepared for the bus crews to rest so they would not stay in their bus running the engine while waiting for passengers to board.
