Transportation Ministry inspector-general Wahyu Satrio Utomo said the operation of the ferries would significantly reduce road traffic between the two cities, particularly along Java’s northern coast.
“The traffic jams have caused inefficiency,” said Wahyu at the service launch at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port, adding that the ferries are expected to cut travel time to 24 hours from 48 hours by the land route.
The service is being inaugurated with two ferries from two companies with a combined capacity of 262 vehicles, short of the four vessels the government was initially planning to operate the service with.
Land transportation director-general Budi Setiadi said only two operators were ready to begin services as at November, suggesting that a failure to agree on prices was probably behind the shortage.
The service began operation with the KM RoRo Prayasti owned by Jagad Zamrud Khatulistiwa and KM Ferrindo 5 owned by ASDP Indonesia Ferry, which have the capacity to transport 160 and 102 trucks, respectively.
Budi said the government would hold another tender next year to seek two other ships with the same budget allocation of IDR30bn ($2.1m).
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