W

ith the Idul Fitri holiday only three weeks away, the government is confident that transportation and infrastructure will be more than ready to accommodate the homebound exodus by the end of this month.

After checking on the conditions of main roads in Cileunyi, Nagreg and Tasikmalaya in West Java, Transportation Minister E.E. Mangindaan said the roads along the route were in good shape to accommodate the travelers before and after Idul Fitri on July 28-29.

'€œIn general, the roads along Cileunyi and Nagreg are ready to be passed through,'€ he told reporters on Wednesday.

Mangindaan, along with Public Works Ministry'€™s Bina Marga director general, Djoko Murjanto, as well as officials from the National Police Traffic Corps, inspected the southern route, including the Nagreg highway, which in recent years has successfully overcome bottlenecks in the area.

The minister said he had instructed local authorities to take precautionary measures due to possible congestion in Malangbong in Garut and Gentong in Tasikmalaya, including by maximizing the use of alternative roads toward Garut.

In addition, the Public Works Ministry'€™s Djoko said repairs on Java'€™s southern and northern coastal highway (Pantura) were completed on Monday.

'€œWe promised that the road works would be completed 30 days before Idul Fitri and as of Monday, we have completed all the works,'€ Djoko told reporters during the inspection.

According to data from the Transportation Ministry'€™s research and development department, there will be around 27.8 million homebound travelers this year '€” including those using private vehicles '€” or an increase of around 6.99 percent compared to last year.

The ministry said that around 70 percent of the vehicles traveling during the annual exodus will be passing through Pantura.

The Public Works Ministry allocated Rp 1.8 trillion (US$151.1 million) this year to repair the roads, which were severely damaged following heavy floods earlier this year.

'€œBoth the northern and southern routes are now in good shape. However, we are still repairing several parts of some alternative routes, which have withstood constant damage caused by trucks carrying heavy loads exceeding the standardized weight,'€ Djoko said.

He said that roads between Kadipaten and Jatinangor in West Java, which serve as alternative routes, were in the middle of repairs expected to be completed by July 12.

'€œObviously we need cooperation with other stakeholders from the Transportation Ministry and the police to keep an eye on the heavy vehicles passing through the roads, so we don'€™t have to repair them over and over again,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, in a bid to help smooth the flow of the annual exodus, the Transportation Ministry has allocated Rp 38 billion to provide free transportation for motorcyclists, to lessen the number of motorcycle accidents.

The ministry will provide trains, trucks, buses and ships to transport both motorcycles and travelers from Jakarta to the country'€™s main cities in Central and East Java, among others. Mangindaan said that the service would initially be available for 16,650 motorcycles and 33,000 people.