Indonasia, September 18: Tens of millions of Indonesians have started heading home in a mass exodus to celebrate the end of Ramadan holiday Eid al-Fitr.
A mass of people were cramming planes, trains, ferries, buses and overloaded motorcycles as major cities and towns began to empty.
An estimated 27.25 million people are expected to be on the move over the coming days in this year’s exodus marking the completion of the fasting month, transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said.
Indonesians will celebrate the Eid holiday on either Sunday or Monday, depending on the sighting of the new moon, in one of the world’s largest yearly mass migrations.
“The peak days started last night and will continue over the weekend,” Mr Ervan said.
The expected number of passengers heading home is nearly nine per cent higher than last year’s figure of 25.63 million, Mr Ervan said.
“There’s always an increase every year,” he said, adding 16.25 million people will use planes, trains and ferries while 11 million will travel home by car and motorcycle.
Police have said they have sent 120,000 officers to monitor major travel routes through the Muslim-majority country of 234 million people, anticipating a steady drumbeat of deadly accidents as vehicles jam roads.
At least 548 people were killed, most of them packed onto motorcycles, on Indonesian roads during last year’s exodus.
Health authorities have gotten in on the act, announcing earlier this week the distribution of 50,000 kits of hand sanitiser and tissues to help halt the spread of swine flu.
At Jakarta’s stiflingly hot Senen train station, poor travellers hoping to go home complained of long queues to line up for overpriced and scarce tickets.
“I’ve waited here since this morning but we haven’t got tickets yet,” Maria, a 22-year-old with a baby in one hand and a suitcase and plastic bags in the other said.
“We’ll stay overnight here if we can’t get any tickets. We’ll have to queue very early tomorrow,” she said.
—Agencies