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.