The North Jakarta Transportation Sub-agency has tightened supervision and implemented traffic engineering on the Cakung-Cilincing road to reduce traffic congestion caused by the high volume of container transportation in the area.

Head of the Sub-agency, Rudy Saptari Sulesuryana said his party carried out intensive monitoring and placed personnel at a number of points since the vehicle queues occurred.

According to him, traffic engineering implemented over the past two days has begun to have a positive impact on the smooth flow of vehicles.

"We have been implementing traffic management since yesterday, especially during rush hour. As of 7 PM, traffic flow from the north (Tanjung Priok) to the south and vice versa was smooth," he said, Friday (7/24).

Officers implemented traffic engineering by temporarily closing the road starting at 4:30 PM. U-turns were also closed at several critical locations, including the Babek TNI area in Rorotan.

"Once traffic flow returns to normal, the U-turn point will reopen. We will monitor it again today," he added.

According to him, the traffic congestion on the Cakung-Cilincing roas is triggered by an imbalance in logistics flows at the port. The high volume of imports, not matched by export activity, has led to a backlog of containers at the port and depots.

"This condition then has an impact on increasing long queues of trucks on main roads," he explained.

As a precautionary measure, Rudy continued, the North Jakarta Transportation Sub-agency directed truck drivers to wait at the Tanah Merdeka Terminal if there were long queues heading to the depot.

"This is applied so that the road can still be used by other vehicles and is not blocked by queues of trucks," he continued.

Meanwhile, Head of the Traffic and Road Transportation Control and Operations Section of the North Jakarta Transportation Sub-agency, Yulza Romadhoni Putra, added that at least 30 personnel were deployed to manage traffic flow at a number of points prone to congestion.

Yulza explained that based on monitoring at the KBN Cakung u-turn on Thursday (July 23), traffic flow heading to north was smooth. Meanwhile, traffic from Kebon Baru heading to south in the Babek area experienced some congestion.

"We ensure optimal traffic flow by maximizing the use of available road space. We urge road users to comply with officer instructions to ensure smooth traffic flow," he appealed.