Jakarta –
The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) through the Toll Road Management Agency (BPJT) appealed to the public who will be going home for Eid via toll roads to ensure sufficient toll card or e-toll card balances.
BPJT member Community Element Tulus Abadi said, before starting the homecoming journey via the Toll Road, motorists must top up the sufficient balance on their electronic money card according to the rates set on each Toll Road.
“Insufficient e-Toll balances or electronic money cards are one of the causes of homecoming traffic jams, especially at Toll Gates, so motorists can also anticipate having sufficient balances for the 2024 Eid homecoming,” said Tulus at the West Merdeka Forum 9 (FMB9), quoted from the BPJT Ministry of PUPR website, Thursday (28/3/24).
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Based on data from PT Jasa Marga (Persero) Tbk. In the 2023/2024 Christmas and New Year (Nataru) period, there were around 28,000 vehicles with insufficient balances on the Jakarta to Kalikangkung toll road. In other words, there are still many travelers who don’t pay attention to this.
Therefore, PUPR again appeals to travelers to ensure their e-Toll balance is sufficient so as not to cause traffic jams. Tulus recommends that travelers top up their balance with an excess of around 30-40& just in case.
“This is an effort to prevent drivers from filling up the balance at the toll gate or borrowing the card of the road user behind it,” he said.
Apart from that, Tulus added, queues resulting from motorists borrowing e-Toll cards from other motorists when the balance is low will cause a delay in transaction time and impact the traffic side.
As additional information, previously the Corporate Communication and Community Development Group Head of Jasa Marga Lisye reported that at least 20% of toll users experienced a shortage of toll card balances during the Eid holiday period last year. Therefore, Lisye appealed to toll road users to ensure the readiness of their e-Toll balance before starting departure.
To make it easier, people can also take advantage of the features in the Travoy application to ensure their balance needs reach their destination point. Travoy is a digital travel assistant that can be accessed by the public, and presents a number of superior features that are integrated from the Jasa Marga Tollroad Command Center.
“People can plan their journey by writing there (Travoy), where they come from, where they are going. There they will be given alternative routes and how much toll fare they have to prepare, also how much toll fare they pay, at what gate, it will appear on there. Hopefully this will be enough to help people prepare electronic money balances so that there are no queues,” he explained.
Apart from that, Jasa Marga will also continue to alert officers at a number of toll gates (GT) and rest areas to help road users if there are problems with low e-Toll balances. Apart from that, in a number of GTs there will also be special substations that will provide top-up services.
For the 2024 Eid holiday period, Jasa Marga itself projects that as many as 1.86 million vehicles will leave Jabodetabek during the homecoming period or H-7 to H-2 Eid. This figure increases by 54.13% from normal traffic volume and 5.94% from Eid 2023.
Meanwhile, for the return flow from H+1 to H+7 of Eid or 11 to 17 April 2024, it is predicted that at least 1.92 million vehicles will return to Jabodetabek. This figure has increased by 60.55% from normal traffic and 14.9% from Eid 2023.
The peak of the Eid homecoming flow is predicted to occur on Saturday 6 April 2024, at which time as many as 259,087 vehicles will leave Jabodetabek. This figure is an increase of 66.8% from normal traffic (traffic) and around 0.03% of traffic at the peak of Eid 2023.
Meanwhile, for the peak return flow of Eid, it is estimated that it will occur on H+4 of Eid or on April 15 2024. There will be at least around 300,722 vehicles returning to Jabodetabek at the peak time of the return flow.
(shc/rrd)