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t is time to celebrate again in Indonesia, as the nation enjoys three days off from work thanks to Chinese New Year falling on a Friday, but the people stuck in traffic intending to spend their long weekend outside the capital will be in less of a celebratory mood.

Ade, who was on a bus heading to Tasikmalaya in West Java from Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta, said the bus driver had been instructed to exit the Cikampek toll road at the nearest gate and continue the trip on non-toll roads via Kalimalang, East Jakarta.

“The traffic jam on Jl. Kalimalang is even worse,” he told wartakota.tribunnews.com, expressing his discontentment with the toll road management. “[The Cikampek toll road] is the main access connecting Jakarta with Cikampek, Karawang and other parts of West Java.”

Another road user, Maryoto, shared Ade’s resentment: “It normally takes me two hours to get to Bandung. It’s been five or six hours, and I’m still here [on the Cikampek toll road], it feels like I’m going to Yogyakarta [which is three times as far from Jakarta as Bandung].”

Despite the seemingly tangled traffic, state-owned toll road operator Jasa Marga in a press statement estimated the number of vehicles using the toll road as of Thursday evening at 60,000, which is 2.4 percent lower than the normal volume of 62,000 vehicles a day.

“Around 23.7 percent, or 14,000 of the total 60,000, were heavy vehicles. The construction of the Jakarta-Cikampek overpass and of the light rail transit (LRT) as well as several road maintenance projects worsened the congestion,” the statement said.

To alleviate the congestion, Jasa Marga was collaborating with the Jakarta Police to manage the flow of traffic.

The statement further says that congestion will likely reach a peak on Sunday, with an expected 92,000 vehicles heading back to the capital, up 7.89 percent from the normal number of 85,200.

At the Cililitan gate, said Jasa Marga president director Desi Arryani, the company had introduced newly procured mobile reader machines, allowing the company’s staff to approach toll road users to tap their cards on the portable devices to speed up toll gate procedures.

“We’ll soon use the [mobile readers] at several other gates, namely Kamal, Slipi, Semanggi, Kuningan and Tebet. The devices have previously been used at the Sikarang Utama, Cileunyi and Pasteur gates,” she said.

“Normally, it takes four to five seconds for a toll booth to serve one vehicle. Using this machine, we can serve up to three vehicles within the same time,” she added.

Another toll road operator, PT Lintas Marga Sedaya (LMS), has opened all of its 26 toll booths at the Cikopo-Palimanan (Cipali) gate. LMS vice president director Firdaus Azis said that measure had been taken to anticipate a soaring number of vehicles during the long weekend.

“We’ve also deployed additional officers to ensure that all activities at the gates and public facilities at the rest areas run well,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com.

The country’s longest toll road, which stretches 116.75 kilometers, accommodates up to 32,000 vehicles a day. During the Imlek holiday, Firdaus added, the company had prepared to serve up to 40,000 vehicles a day.

Increasing numbers of travelers were also registered by railway operator PT Railink, which transports people from and to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten.

“As of Thursday evening, we’ve recorded 3,000 people commuting with our trains,” said Railink operational and technical director Porwanto Handry Nugroho to kompas.com.

“It’s is a breakthrough. Our average daily passenger number is 1,600 to 2,500,” he added. (vla)