JB hit by major power outage

Chaotic: Traffic at a standstill at one of the traffic light junctions at Jalan Tebrau after a major power outage in Johor Baru.

JOHOR BARU: The city plunged into chaos after a major power outage. The blackout that struck during lunch hour left victims stranded in lifts and brought traffic to a standstill after all traffic lights in the city stopped working.

However, supply was restored by 7.40pm yesterday.

The power outage, caused by the breakdown of a Tenaga Nasio­nal Bhd substation, is described as one of the worst in recent memory.

However, no major accidents were reported and those trapped were rescued by their building’s own emergency response teams.

.Besides malls, the power outage also knocked out power to the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex and Sultanah Aminah (HSA) general hospital.

The Immigration Department’s systems were only down for less than 10 minutes before the back-up generators kicked in.

HSA’s operations were also not affected as the hospital was also using back-up generators to run their critical areas – mainly operating theatres and intensive care units.

Traffic policemen were also deployed to man traffic along major roads, including Jalan Tun Razak, Jalan Skudai and Jalan Lingkaran Dalam.

S. Param, 43, said he was about to go out for lunch when the power disruption occurred at his office near Jalan Ayer Molek.

“I was forced to walk down using the stairs from the ninth floor as I was worried of being trapped in the lift,” he said.

Tenaga Nasional Bhd Johor (Distribution Division) general manager Datuk Baderul Sham said the power outage was due to a failure at a main substation at JBCC along Jalan Rahman Andak at 1.04pm.

Baderul said among the affected areas were the JBCC Tower, Bangu­nan Sultan Iskandar where the Cus­toms, Immigration and Quarantine Complex is located, Central Police Station, JB Sentral building, HSA, Taman Century and Jalan Yahya Awal, involving 10,000 TNB account holders.

Johor International Trade, Invest­ment and Utilities committee chairman Jimmy Puah Wee Tse said power in some places was restored by 3pm.- Star