T

he authorities in Medan, North Sumatra, have cracked down on at least 14 allegedly illegal transportation company terminals operating in the provincial capital, mostly over the companies’ failure to produce business licenses.

The Medan Police’s traffic unit reported on Friday that the crack- down was part of a joint traffic operation, conducted since the beginning of the week by a local police traffic unit, the municipal transportation agency and city public order officers.

“There are many public transportation terminals operating in downtown Medan, despite the ban. Their existence can lead to traffic congestion,” head of the Medan Police’s traffic unit Comr. I Made Ary Pradana said on Friday.

He said that so far the joint team had held four operations across the municipality and planned to complete them in 20 days.

Among the terminals already targeted were those belonging to the Paradep Taksi, KUPJ Tour, CV Merpati Taksi, CV Mandiri Taksi, Harmoni Transport, Taksi Kita on Jl. Sisingamangaraja, BTN, Karsima Transport, CV Pulau Samosir and CV Transport on Jl. Jamin Ginting.

Officials from the joint team have taken down the name boards of each of the transport companies and banned them from continuing operations until they have the required licenses or meet prevailing regulations.

Ary said that some of the terminals did have licenses but their operations were violating traffic regulations, especially because they were operating in downtown Medan but with licenses meant for other areas.

Separately, head of the municipal Transportation Agency, Armansyah Lubis, said that the licenses for public transportation terminals were issued by the North Sumatra provincial administration, accounting why his agency had no idea regarding which of them did not have the required operational licenses.

Lubis said many of the terminals that were targets of the joint operation had been operating without licenses for some time. An example of this, he said, was the terminal belonging to Paradep Taksi, which operates on Jl. Sisingamangaraja.

“We will send a letter to the provincial administration questioning why there are terminals that are operating without licenses,” Lubis told The Jakarta Post.

He added that apart from disturbing traffic, illegal terminals also caused losses to the state as they did not pay for retribution fees. “That is why we will impose stiff measures against them.”

Medan Police chief. Sr. Comr. Tagam Sinaga said the police was in full support of the municipal administration’s effort to put the operations of the terminals back in accordance with prevailing regulations. “The police will back up every operation held to raid illegal terminals until the joint operation is complete,” he said.

The Organization of Land Transportation Owners’ (Organda) North Sumatra branch welcomed the move, saying that illegal terminals violated prevailing regulations on transportation.

Chairman of the organization, Haposan Sialagan, estimated that there were some 3,000 transport pools or terminals that were allegedly operating illegally across the province. “The all have Medan as their final destination. It is absolutely right to have the terminals in Medan being put in order,” he said.

He also said that none of the transportation companies concerned were members of Organda.

“We call on them to not be disappointed by the move because they still have time to fix things,” he said.