JAKARTA, Mac 13 (NNN-ANTARA) – At least 193 million Indonesian people will travel to their hometown, during the exodus of Eid al-Fitr, raising concern on huge traffic congestion, the country’s Ministry of Transportation said yesterday.
“According to our latest national survey, the number of travellers across the country for this year’s Eid holiday have a potential to reach around 193.6 million, or 71.7 percent of the country’s total population. This will be a lot higher than the number of last year, which was recorded at 123.8 million people,” Minister of Transportation, Budi Karya Sumadi, said in a statement.
From the total predicted number of travellers, around 28.43 million of them are those who would travel from Greater Jakarta, one of the world’s most densely-populated cities, with destinations such as Central Java, West Java and East Java provinces.
In Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, Eid al-Fitr this year is expected to fall on Apr 9. It is customary for Muslims to celebrate the annual religious holiday with their families.
Sumadi said, the government had been preparing measures to anticipate the surge of travellers, resulting in congestion at nodes and on roads through patterns of travel, transport and traffic.– NNN-ANTARA
