TRAFFIC JAM * Indonesia - Thousands of trucks stuck in 11 km.

A mammoth traffic jam

Merak,Indonesia -ABC News (Australia) -1 March 2011: -- Indonesian truck drivers stuck in a massive traffic jam for more than a week say they have been forced to sell their belongings to buy food...  In a graphic example of infrastructure bottlenecks in South-East Asia's biggest economy, the jam stretches for 11 kilometres and has ensnared some 2,000 trucks...  It has choked the flow of goods by road and ferry from Merak port in west Java to Bakauheni port in south-east Sumatra, a crossing that should take less than three hours but has stranded some drivers since February 21...  Indonesia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with output expected to top 6 per cent this year...   Yet it is befuddled by red tape, mired in corruption, and its ports, roads and airports are hopelessly inadequate for the pace of growth it hopes to sustain in coming years, according to investors and analysts...  The government last year announced plans to spend almost $137 billion on infrastructure until 2014, more than half of which would have to come from the private sector...  As for truck drivers at Merak, officials said three extra ferries had been dispatched to clear the jam...  Eight of 30 ferries plying the route were docked for repairs, the spokesman explained...  (Photo from AFP, by Bay Ismoyo:  In limbo: Truck drivers rest beside their trucks in the mammoth traffic jam)