Motorists on Jalan Raya Bekasi and Jalan Raya Cakung-Cilincing can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The Jakarta Transportation Agency (Dishub) says traffic is back on track thanks to a series of strategic U-turn closures.

Jakarta Transportation Agency Head, Budi Awaludin, confirmed that traffic in both directions has returned to normal following a site inspection on Wednesday (7/22) night.

"Alhamdulillah (thank God), the issues have been resolved. Both sides are now seeing very smooth traffic flow after we rerouted traffic by closing U-turns at Cakung, Babek, and JGC," he expressed, Thursday (7/23).

He went on to say that the traffic intervention was implemented at 7 PM. By 7:30 PM, the congestion began to break up and vehicles were moving steadily again.

To ensure the situation remains under control, the agency will resume the traffic management measures today starting at 3 PM.

The U-turn closures in Cakung, Babek, and Jakarta Garden City (JGC) areas are being managed by personnel from the East and North Jakarta Transportation Sub-agencies.

"We have deployed approximately 75 personnel for this operation, consisting of 30 personnel from East Jakarta, 30 from North Jakarta, and 15 provincial-level stationed across various points,” he explained.

Besides managing traffic flow, personnel are directing truck drivers to wait at the Tanah Merdeka Terminal if queues at the container depots become excessive.

According to Budi, the congestion was primarily triggered by a container backlog at the port, caused by high import volumes that have not been balanced by export activity. This imbalance has led to containers piling up at both ports and depots, resulting in long truck queues on public roads.

"We hope that Pelindo’s depot capacity can be increased from 65 percent to 75 or 80 percent, so we can prevent further container build-ups at the depots," he concluded.