Gov’t Apologizes for Any Inconveniences During 2016 Mudik

Vice President Jusuf Kalla on behalf of the Government apologized for any inconveniences during the 2016 mudik (an annual exodus ahead of Eid al-Fitr) that claimed dozens of casualties due to exhaustion brought about by severe traffic congestion.

The Govenment will evaluate the incident, Kalla said.

The Government admitted their mistakes at estimating or predicting congestion in this year’s flow of mudik in a new Pejagan – Brebes Toll Road, Central Java, that caused long traffic congestion on the track, the Vice President added.

“The Government apologized for the inconveniences and we will evaluate it. The Government has tried its best to give service to the people, and people over anticipated the new toll road. It should be managed better next time,” Kalla told the reporters on Tuesday (12/7), at the Vice President Office, Jakarta.

Kalla explained that the Government has arranged solutions and policies to minimize the congestion during mudik and returning flow in a Cabinet Meeting on the Preparation of 2016 Eid al-Fitr.

“We are overly confident and optimistic that the new toll road can help the flow of mudik. It turns out people think the same, everyone is convinced to take the toll road, and it leads to severe traffic congestion and a disaster,” Kalla said.

According to the Vice President, the Government actually has discussed various suggestions during the Cabinet Meeting. One of the suggestion proposed by the Vice President is to sell toll tickets at one gate, so the motorists can pass through the other toll gates freely.

“Based on the calculation, it takes 15 seconds for the people to pay toll fee and they take more time to exchange money. If there are million of cars, they waste 15 million seconds at the toll gate. If only the toll road has 15 gates, we could save much time. But it did not happened,” the Vice President explained.

Moreover, the other suggestion is by implementing odd-and-even license plate rule during mudik. For example, residents with even last digit of their license plate numbers can only drive their cars on Saturday and Monday, while residents with odd plate numbers can only drive their cars on Sunday and Tuesday.

However, the Vice President admitted that it needs further evaluation on the effectiveness of the suggestion considering many people used personal vehicles during the mudik. (ANT/ES) (RAS/EP/YM/Naster)