ISKANDAR PUTERI, Dec 6 — The blackout which happened at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex, Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) in Johor Baru today was due to the malfunctioning of one of the generators in the premises, according to a state executive councillor.

State Works, Transport and Infrastructure Committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said the complex was receiving electricity supply from a single source and was relying on seven generators for backup.

"This morning there was confusion at CIQ BSI, especially when the pedestrian hall suffered a blackout due to maintenance works being undertaken by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). The works were scheduled to be carried out from 8pm to 4am.

"When the works started, the seven generator sets were working well. One of them subsequently broke down at about 11pm, resulting in a ‘total shutdown’ at 2am. Electricity supply was restored at 9.30am,” he told a press conference at his office in Bangunan Dato’ Abdul Rahman Andak, Kota Iskandar here.

He said although the e-Gate system was not working during that period, the nine counters for contra lanes were functioning properly and managed to clear those commuting between Malaysia and Singapore.

Mohamad Fazli said the incident did not affect the movements of travellers between the two countries as several other lanes had been provided earlier.

He said the state authority, TNB and state Public Works Department (JKR) were studying new electricity supply sources as an alternative for the complex to prevent a recurrence of the incident.

"The upgrading measures include conducting ‘running tests’ on all the generators and usage load, a departure from the current procedure which does not include usage load,” he said.

He said the damaged generator would be repaired first, adding that it would cost about RM800,000 to maintain all seven sets.

Earlier, Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi, in a Facebook post, said the incident had inconvenienced consumers and embarrassed the state.

In response to Onn Hafiz’s post, many people complained that the incident forced travellers including senior citizens and children to spend time going through long queues in uncomfortable conditions. — Bernama