ITS Campus, ITS News – Transportation is one of the sectors that has been severely affected by the current pandemic policy. Related to this, Research and Development of the Ministry of Transportation (Balitbanghub) partnered with four State Universities (PTN), one of them is Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), to present policy recommendations in the transportation sector of sea, river, lake, and crossing (LSDP) in a webinar, Tuesday (15/9).

In addition to ITS, the other three PTN are Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Gadjah Mada University (UGM), and University of Indonesia (UI). This activity in ITS is one of a series of transportation research webinars held by Balitbanghub online.

Starting the webinar at ITS, Minister of Transportation Ir Budi Karya Sumadi said, this event is the opening of a total of nine series of webinars is a form of collaboration with PTN in reviewing various things to deal with and prevent the spread of Coronavirus Desease (Covid-19) in the transportation sector.

According to Budi, in this webinar series, more than 163 researchers from lecturers and Balitbanghub are involved to examine their respective topics. Later, a total of 23 Policy Briefs from the four PTN were also presented in the webinar series which lasted until the end of September. “Together with the universities, many inputs are useful for us (Kemenhub RI, red) to carry out safe and productive transportation during this pandemic,” he said.

ITS Rector Prof Dr. Ir Mochamad Ashari MEng during a speech at the Kick-Off Webinar Series entitled Healthy Transportation, For Advanced Indonesia in ITS

In line with Budi, ITS Rector Prof Dr Ir Mochamad Ashari MEng also mentioned that in this cooperation, each PTN got four different study topics. ITS examines the LSDP transportation sector, the UI of the air transport sector, the ITB road transport sector, and the UGM rail transportation sector. “For this LSDP, we (ITS, red) divide into four clusters; Disaster Impact Analysis, Disaster Mitigation, Disaster Risk, and Disaster Recovery,” explained the rector who is familiarly called Ashari today.

Ashari continued, noted the policy arising from the spread of Covid-19 has an impact on performance at the five major ports; Belawan, Tanjung Priok, Tanjung Perak, Balikpapan, and Makassar. Besides, there are also seven main crossings such as North Sumatra, Jakarta, Lampung, Banten, East Java, East Kalimantan, and South Sulawesi. “The surrounding area is also affected, for example, the origin of green to orange,” said the Professor of Department of Electrical Engineering.

Based on the logistical distribution map, this lecturer from Sidoarjo explained that there is an inequality of the distribution of Self-Safety Equipment (PPE), where surgical masks and rapid tests in the affected areas are very high. “Another finding is an unexpected spread, because it could have come from air, land and sea transportation,” continued the alumnus of ITS Electrical Engineering undergraduate program.

Therefore, Ashari recommends the integration of distribution centers using scheduled passenger ships centered on three major ports such as Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya and Soekarno Hatta Port in Makassar. “The concentration at these three ports has enough efficiency to be able to distribute humanitarian logistics evenly to all regions,” he said.

Not only that, the doctoral alumnus at Curtin University, Australia, said that ITS researchers also recommended a new model that the ITS team has designed before, namely the modification of the Indonesian Army’s Landing Craft Tank (LCT) to a Humanitarian Logistics ship and health service. “In addition to transporting logistics, the top of the ship can also be converted into a hospital made of containers,” he said.

Related to the Disaster Risk Cluster, its researchers’ recommendations submitted by Ashari are the provision of subsidies, a review of port rate discounts and port service PNPB, and a loan relaxation program to maintain the liquidity of the company. “We (ITS researchers, red) also recommend providing advanced ICT (Information and Communication Technology) infrastructure based on Less Contact Transaction technology for the operation and prevention of covid-19 spread,” he added.

Dr Ir Endroyono DEA when presenting the material in webinar series titled Healthy Transportation, For Advanced Indonesia in ITS

In line with the rector, one of the research team from ITS Dr. Ardi Adji SSi M.Si also provided fiscal policy recommendations for national recovery aimed at two main functions, namely state infrastructure and public services. “Alternative incentives for marine transport operators include loan relaxation such as interest subsidies, as well as the suspension of interest payments and installments for six months or a year,” he explained.

As for the technology, according to researchers from ITS Dr Ir Endroyono DEA, its team recommends Internet of Things (IoT) based detection systems and sensors, integrated tracking systems, as well as the implementation of electronic systems, e-commerce, e-payments and so on. “At the end of the day we (Indonesia, red) need the strengthening of smart government in each institution that serves transportation both land, air, and sea,” added the lecturer of the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Webinar participants witnessed the symbolic submission of the Policy Brief virtually from PTN rectors and researchers to the Minister of Transportation RI, Ir. Budi Karya Sumadi

Also, present virtually in this webinar Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir BA MBA, Chairman of Commission V of the House of Representatives of The Republic of Indonesia Lasarus SSos MSi, Head of Balitbanghub Umiyatun Hayati Triastuti, as well as several other researchers. All of them are parties participating in the webinar series cooperation titled Healthy Transportation, For Advanced Indonesia. (mad/rev/ITS Public Relations)