Bali News

Whilst Idul Fitri holiday is still rather far ahead, queue of exodus has started to appear in the entrance gate of Gilimanuk ferry port on Saturday, September 12th. The queue was dominated by motorbikes in small groups of 5 to 10. A port officer on duty said that there was an increase of about 10% from normal days.

Occasionally queue arose in front of the ticket booth when flock of motorbikes came together whilst the new electronic ticketing system took sometime. More than police officers, the gate was also guarded by controllers from leasing companies monitoring cars bought through leasing assistance.

Operational Manager of Gilimanuk port authority, Ospar Silaban confirmed the increase of motorbike traffic since Friday night. Some of them took quite some risk by carrying more than two persons and a lot of luggage.

Meanwhile, Police Commander of Jembrana, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Ketut Suardana said that the police has made all necessary preparation to anticipate new patterns of flocking exodus into the port to prevent any potential chaos. Monitoring post has been erected in accident-sensitive locations. To anticipate flocking traffic to Gilimanuk, police also monitors mouse paths normally used by those who try to leapfrog the queue.

All CCTV are fully activated to monitor both traffic of holiday exodus and so as the opposite direction. Gilimanuk security post also supported by fire brigade and medical clinic. “We promote humanity approach. We hope holiday makers to watch their driving attitude”, he said.