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Centralized mudik database key for future 'mudik'
Transportation observers are urging the government to set up a centralized mudik information database to accommodate travelers and reduce the public’s reliance on long-distance motorcycle trips.
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Travelers board a train at Tasikmalaya Station, West Java, on April 5. Two weeks ahead of Idul Fitri, people traveling from Tasikmalaya to the provincial capital Bandung, and vice versa, accounted for the largest proportion of passengers at the station. (Antara/Adeng Bustomi)
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o:p>With more than 123 million people expected to make their mudik (exodus) trip this year, transportation observers are urging the government to set up a centralized mudik information database to accommodate travelers and reduce the public’s reliance on long-distance motorcycle trips.
The Transportation Ministry has predicted that some 123.8 million travelers will make the trips in the coming week, accounting for around 45 percent of Indonesia’s total population, and would mark the busiest mudik season in the country’s history.
Indonesia Transportation Society (MTI) has said it was high time the government considered newer solutions to the annual mudik problem.
“We can’t keep being reactionary and rely on ad-hoc solutions, and the government needs a proper road map [to deal with the mudik issue],” MTI chairman Tory Darmantoro told reporters in a media discussion on April 4.
Mudik season, in which millions return to their hometown to celebrate Idul Fitri and reunite with their extended families, is one of the country’s long-standing traditions.
Given the relative predictability of mudik, occurring around the end of Ramadan each year, the government should have been able to anticipate the possible issues arising from mudik, Darmantoro said.
One key issue the MTI has identified in the government’s past handling of mudik is the lack of streamlined responses to the issue. To that end, the MTI has underlined the need for a centralized mudik information database that will act as a hub for public transportation data, real-time traffic updates and other mudik-related information for travelers.
