0 Hundreds of vehicles remain stuck at Merak Port

Hundreds of vehicles heading to Sumatra were stuck in a 9-kilometer queue at Merak Port in Banten on Monday after the Jakarta-Merak toll road reopened on Friday. PT Marga Mandala Sakti (MMS), operator of the Tangerang-Merak toll road, was forced to divert private vehicles at the West Cilegon tollgate. Merak state-owned seaport company (ASDP) spokesman Mario Oetomo Sardasi said on Sunday that the congestion occurred because the number of vehicles kept increasing. 

Extreme weather in the Sunda Strait, which has stopped ships from sailing, worsened the congestion after flooding inundated several parts of the Merak toll road on Thursday. “We are deploying 26 roll on/roll off (RoRo) ships with a total of 95 trips per day. We hope it can reduce the queue,” he said as quoted by tempo.co. Mario said it took an average of two days to ferry vehicles to Bakauheni Port in Lampung. According to the Indonesian Chamber of Industry and Industry, the congestion has caused losses of up to Rp 10 billion (US$1 million) per day. (cor/iwa)

source : the jakarta post