On Wednesday (6 Dec) morning, a power outage at the land checkpoint at Johor Bahru (JB) led to snaking queues of people trying to clear immigration.
Travellers reportedly ended up waiting for hours just to pass through.
Addressing the situation, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) in Singapore said that they expected delays and warned travellers to check traffic conditions before starting their journey.
Earlier today (6 Dec), footage emerged of the congestion at the JB Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex during an apparent electricity blackout.
Oriental Daily reported that the outage began at 8pm yesterday (5 Dec).
The e-gate facilities were out of use as well. This caused congestion at the complex with huge crowds throughout the premises.
One such video on TikTok showed them waiting in long queues to clear immigration inside the complex. The OP stated in a caption in the video that there had been an “electric shutdown”.
Source: TikTok
A commuter also posted a video to TikTok revealing the pitch-black complex at the checkpoint due to the power outage.
As such, travellers had to navigate their way by using the flashlights and screen brightness settings on their mobile devices.
Source: TikTok
Apart from TikTok, affected commuters also posted in the Malaysia-Singapore Border Crossings Facebook group, sharing the severity of the outage. At 9.13am, there was allegedly still no electricity.
Source: Facebook
Another traveller said that electricity had seemingly been restored at 9.51am — however, there were still long queues at the checkpoint.
Source: Facebook
Addressing the situation at 7.44am on 6 Dec, Johor Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi described it as a “huge consumer problem and a disgrace to the state”.
Source: Onn Hafiz Ghazi on Facebook
He said that energy company Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and infrastructure authority Jabatan Kerja Raya had been instructed to resolve the issue immediately.
The minister also attached a letter from TNB in the post.
The letter, dated 27 Nov, stated that the electricity supply would be stopped or interrupted temporarily to multiple areas including the CIQ complex from 8pm on Tuesday (5 Dec) to 4am on Wednesday (6 Dec).
Dato’ Onn Hafiz then questioned why there was no backup supply of electricity.
At 11.14am on 6 Dec, ICA said on Facebook that there was heavy departure traffic at Woodlands Checkpoint due to tailback from Malaysia.
Source: Immigration & Checkpoints Authority on Facebook
They thus expected delays and advised travellers to check traffic conditions before starting their journeys.
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Featured image adapted from TikTok and Facebook.
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