Govt Needs To Increase Ro-Ro Fleet
JAKARTA: The government is urged to increase the number of roll on—roll off (Ro-Ro) vessels to anticipate homecoming and backflow in the future, resolving congestion that often occurs.
Chairman of Indonesia Port Expert Association (HAPI) Wahyono Bimarso said the homecoming issue occurs each year and it can’t be comprehensively resolved by the government and related agencies.
There are several flaws that need to be improved although the implementation has been running well, particularly sea transportation. He assessed the number of Ro-Ro fleet is far from the existing dock capacity, leading to congestion in Merak—Bakauheni Port and Surabaya Port.
According to him, there should be no congestion in Merak Port with the current capacity of 120 ferries per hours in five docks.
However, the current fleet for both homecoming and backflow is still inadequate.
PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry of Merak branch prepares 34 vessels for this year’s homecoming, which is higher from 33 vessels last year. It also prepares another 10 vessels that are being repaired (docking) as anticipation.
The Ministry of Transportation noted more than 762 vessels are operated for this year’s homecoming and backflow.
Such amount consists of 26 Pelni’s vessels, 56 private Ro-Ro, 13 fast ferries, 67 pioneer vessels, and 600 private vessels for short distance.
The number of the sea transport fleet increased by 29 vessels compared to a year earlier.
The Ro-Ro vessel amount rose by 22 vessels to 56 units from 34 units last year, while pioneer vessel increased by 7 vessels to 67 units from 60 units last year.
As for the land transport for the river, lake, and crossing (SDP) reached 133 Ro-Ro vessels or higher from 122 units a year earlier. (T06/TW)
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