TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Transportation Ministry’s Director General of Sea Transportation Agus Purnomo followed up the order issued by Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi to conduct thorough ramp check to all boats in Toba Lake, North Sumatra following the recent tragedy of the capsized boat of KM Sinar Bangun.
“We deploy Marine Inspector from Sea Transportation DG central office and Belawan Port Authority office which lead by Navigation Director until June 29, 2018,” said Agus in a written statement on Monday, June 25.
Agus explained the ramp check included the vessel construction, safety equipment, capacity, evacuation route, ship document, passenger manifest, and fulfillment of ship capacity limit adjusted to ship permit.
Read also: Minister Said KM Sinar Bangun Boat Overloaded Before Capsizing
In addition to the ramp check, Navigation Director Sugeng Wibowo also suggested holding safety improvement program for ships at Toba Lake within short, medium, or long-term plans.
“The short-term program is by gradually handing out the life jacket, regular ramp check with Belawan Port Authority, Directorate of Shipping Services, and Land Transportation DG, as well as socialization about safety,” he explained.
For the medium-term program, Sugeng said, the improvement was by providing more ships, reviewing the regulation in a bid to enforce the safety and the obligatory on owing official boat ticket before the boarding.
Meanwhile, the long-term plan included accelerating basic education on port affairs and basic safety training and also urged the city government to build the docks.
As reported earlier, KM Sinar Bangun was capsized on its way to Tigaras port, Simalungun from Simanindo, Samosir, North Sumatra on Monday, June 18 at around 17:30 local times due to bad weather and overload capacity. As for data on Thursday, June 21, 2018, there were four dead victims, 18 survivors, and 187 remained missing in the Toba Lake incident.
CHITRA PARAMAESTI
