All parties must continue to increase awareness of the potential for security disturbances in various sectors, including the transportation sector which has the potential to overflow the number of homecoming travelers celebrating Christmas. Not only that, but vigilance should also be increased to anticipate possible food shortages ahead of the upcoming Christmas 2023 celebrations.
In connection with efforts to be aware of transportation disruptions such as the increasing number of travelers during Christmas and New Year, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) or KAI is adding train trips during the period 21 December 2023 to 7 January 2024.
KAI’s Main Director, Didiek Hartantyo, revealed that his party will add around 84 train trips every day, so it can be said that the projection for the addition is around 20 percent. For information, the KAI Group itself has provided up to 6,113,934 seats or around 339,663 seats per day, which is an increase of 20 percent compared to last year and is the peak of train travel this year.
The high number of passengers is projected to occur on Saturday, December 23 2023. Of course, in order to make the entire process of transportation smooth during the Christmas and New Year celebrations this time, a number of preparations have been made, some of which are carrying out ramp checks or completeness inspections. Minimum Service Standards (SPM), both at railway facilities and stations in Daop 1 Jakarta to Daop 9 Jember and Divre I North Sumatra to Divre 4 Tanjungkarang.
Apart from that, various plans have also been prepared by the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) through the Directorate General of Land Transportation (Dirjen Hubdat) to ensure smooth traffic flow during the Christmas and New Year holidays. The Ministry of Transportation will also anticipate entry and exit access at various transportation nodes, spilled markets, as well as several tourist locations in the area, as well as locations prone to landslides or other disasters.
Not only that, but toll roads are also a focus that is no less important, especially with regard to how people move, namely at rest area locations. The Government of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) through the Ministry of Transportation will implement management and time restrictions for people who will use the rest area.
Meanwhile, when discussing efforts to guard against food disturbances, especially price increases ahead of Christmas 2023 and New Year 2024, the National Food Agency (Bapanas) immediately intensified the distribution of food aid in the form of rice and also intensified market intervention programs as an effort to maintain stability. price to supply ahead of Christmas.
The Head of Bapanas, Arief Prasetyo, explained that the local Regional Government (Pemda) in various regions in the country must also be able to prepare by continuing to ensure that strategic food stocks are always available and sufficient in markets, especially markets managed by the Regional Government. Apart from providing rice food aid, market intervention programs should also not be stopped.
The reason is that the existence of rice food aid is considered something important to do because it will put pressure on prices in the market. Therefore, the combination of rice food aid with market intervention programs is a very effective strategy, especially ahead of Christmas and New Year like now.
The Indonesian government has really shown its concern, even together with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), since some time ago Bapanas has also distributed rice food aid in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province. Not only that, but the Head of State also instructed Bapanas to be able to ensure the readiness of food stocks for the community, not only in big cities, but also in various regions. Especially in December like now because people will celebrate Christmas.
It has been proven that all the efforts that have been made by the government to guard against various kinds of disruptions in the food sector ahead of Christmas and New Year have produced very good results. In fact, after the implementation of the second phase of rice food aid, which has been rolling out since last September, and was also accompanied by the implementation of various intervention programs in the market, the condition of medium rice prices in the country was observed to be stable.
Of course, in various kinds of holiday celebrations or holidays that the community intends to carry out, including Christmas and the upcoming New Year, there will be several potential disruptions that occur, starting from the security sector, transportation due to the increasing number of travelers, to the food sector because it will there is a potential increase in food prices. In facing all of this, of course all parties must continue to increase vigilance.