Jakarta – As many as 162,938 vehicles left Jakarta on the eve of the Islamic New Year holiday on Wednesday, state-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga has reported.
The government had declared Friday a collective leave day in addition to Islamic New Year on Thursday to create a four-day weekend.
Jasa Marga's corporate communications and community development group head, Dwimawan Heru, said the number was the cumulative total recorded from several toll gates, namely Cikupa gate in the west, Ciawi gate in the south, as well as Cikampek and Kalihurip gates in the east.
"The total number of vehicles that departed from Greater Jakarta increased 39.2 percent [for the holiday] as compared to regular days," Dwimawan said as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday.
He said 47.94 percent of the vehicles headed to the east, while 29.3 percent went to the west and 22.75 percent went to the south.
Jasa Marga also reported traffic congestion on Thursday. To ease the congestion, the toll operator proceeded to implement a contraflow traffic system from kilometer 47 to 61.
State-owned train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) Operational Region 1 spokeswoman Eva Chairunisa said there had been an increase in passengers during the holiday, citing 7,800 passengers on Wednesday.
"It is almost twice the number of passengers in the last two weekends, which was recorded at 4,100 passengers in total," Eva said on Thursday. (dpk)