Cengkareng toll road flood plays havoc with flights

JAKARTA (JP): Flooding swamped sections of Cengkareng toll road in West Jakarta on Tuesday, leaving the route impassable to small vehicles and causing delays in departures from Soekarno- Hatta International Airport.

Heavy rain that drenched the city since Monday evening and monsoon conditions in the Jakarta Bay are believed to have caused the flooding at KM 26 and KM 27, with water levels reaching about one meter on Tuesday morning.

As of Tuesday evening, the water level was 75 centimeters, continuing to block the way for small vehicles. Only large vehicles, such as trucks and buses, were able to reach the airport.

"The airport authorities will provide buses to transport airplane passengers since small cars cannot pass through the road," Adityawarman, head of Tomang-Cawang toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, said in an interview on ANteve private television station.

The television station also reported that the authorities prepared a water pump with a capacity to remove 1,500 liters of water per second.

Flight departures were disrupted due to the difficulty of airline crews in reaching the airport.

"So many airlines were forced to delay the departure of their airplanes, since their crews and passengers were late in arriving at the airport," an airport public relations official, Toto, said.

He said most airlines delayed their flight departures by an average of 30 minutes.

"People finally reached the airport through other entrance gates -- the Kalideres and the Tangerang toll roads," he told The Jakarta Post.

A member of staff at the VIP room of Garuda Indonesia, Nuning, confirmed that delays were prevalent.

"We delayed the departure of our flights, including for Makassar and Yogyakarta," she said.

Baban Kartiwan, station manager of Lufthansa, said the German airline did not experience disruption of its lone flight departure.

"Lufthansa did not delay its airplane departure, which left for Bonn, Germany, on time at 8:10 p.m.," he told the Post on Tuesday evening.

"There are two possibilities. Either our passengers already knew of the flood on the toll road and they took other routes to reach the airport, or the water level had already receded."

Baban acknowledged that Lufthansa's on-time departure was unusual among the harried airlines.

"I heard from other airlines that there were many delays of their departures due to the flooding on the Cengkareng toll road," he said.

Stranded

Hundreds of cars were forced to park on the shoulder of the road at KM 25 as they waited for the floodwater to recede.

An Australian, identified only as Sally, said she was on her way to pick up a friend arriving at the airport when she realized the road was impassable.

"It troubled me a lot as there was no information provided at the toll road's entrance gate," she said.

Car drivers also complained of the poor public information service at the toll road entrance gate.

"We only got information from Sonora radio station that the area was inundated," Karpin, a driver, said.

He said he decided to leave home early so that he could pick up his boss, who was scheduled to arrive from Surabaya at 4:30 p.m.

"But I've been stuck here stuck here since 1 p.m. and cannot do anything as I don't have a cell phone to contact my boss."

A local woman, Susan, whose flight to Australia was scheduled to leave at 5 p.m., was similarly upset by the lack of information.

"No information was provided at the toll road's entrance gate," she complained.

"I cannot ride on the Damri (state-owned bus company serving routes to and from the airport) as all of them were full of passengers."

She was unsure about the status of her flight.

"I don't know whether it will be delayed or leave on time," she said. (asa/leo)