Power outage paralyzes Jakarta
Power outage paralyzes Jakarta
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Tangerang/Bogor
Blackouts that affected much of Java and Bali on Thursday
resulted in massive traffic jams, stalled trains and delayed
flights in the capital and neighboring towns.
Thousands of train passengers were forced to wait for hours
inside crowded compartments when they were caught between
stations by the blackout. They were also left in the dark by
authorities.
"We are in the middle of nowhere. I do not know how long we
have to wait here or why we are stuck here. I am already late for
work. The thing is, nobody is telling us what is happening. We
are not sure whether to take a bus instead," Rusman, 34, who was
on a train that was stalled between the Tebet and Manggarai
stations, told The Jakarta Post.
That was only one of 28 trains transporting thousands of
passengers from Bekasi, Bogor and Tangerang to Jakarta. The
trains came to a sudden stop when the electricity went off at
about 10:30 a.m.
Thousands of other passengers were left waiting at stations
between Bogor, Kota and Tanah Abang, as well as between Bekasi
and Kota.
In Bogor, station officials returned the money of some 1,000
people who had purchased tickets before the power outage.
The head of the Greater Jakarta operations control center for
state railway company PT KAI, Mauluddin, said railway officials
were unaware of what was going on and thus could not inform
passengers about the blackout.
"PLN did not tell us anything. When we called then, they said
they were not sure. All we can do is tell passengers waiting at
the stations to take another form of transportation," he told the
Post, referring to the state power company.
Mauluddin acknowledged it was difficult to pass on this
information to passengers inside trains stuck between stations.
Later in the afternoon, he told the Post that power had
returned to the railway system at 1:20 p.m.
The blackout also caused chaos on the roads because of the
lack of traffic lights.
Thousands of vehicles crept slowly along Jl. Hayam Wuruk, Jl.
Gajah Mada and Jl. S. Parman in West Jakarta, Jl. Thamrin and Jl.
Sudirman in Central Jakarta, and Jl. MT Haryono and Jl. Gatot
Subroto in South Jakarta.
Rudy, 30, who was caught in the traffic on Jl. Gajah Mada,
said it took him an hour to pass by the street, compared to 20
minutes in normal conditions.
"All of the drivers were just so selfish. It made the traffic
worse because everyone was trying to be the first to go through
the intersections," he told the Post.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said the police
deployed about 18,000 officers to direct traffic and to secure
strategic locations during the blackout.
"We also sent up several helicopters to monitor the situation
from the air," he said.
The blackout also forced four domestic and four international
fights at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to be delayed.
Waspan, a spokesman for airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II,
said the blackout did not cause any serious disturbances to
services at the airport because the backup generator
automatically kicked in when the airport lost power at about
11:30 a.m.
He said the generator was able to supply sufficient power to
vital facilities such as the navigation guidance and passenger
services at the airport terminal.