Traffic chaos at Jeddah Port due to 4-day power cut

POWER BREAKDOWN: A contract's error led to power cut-off for more than four days at the Jeddah Islamic Port, Jeddah.

JEDDAH: Power cut off at the Jeddah Islamic Port for four days led to traffic crashes at the entrance of the port and the stacking of the export containers in front of Gate 1.

The truck line extended to Al-Khair Bridge, causing traffic congestion.
The customs administration shifted transactions and operations, including the printing of data, to the main building of customs outside the port, after the internal devices were disrupted, according to a report in a local publication.
The publication quoted sources saying that a contractor in charge of the demolition and removal of the garbage of King Saud Hospital, closed two years ago in order to take advantage of the free space, cut the main cable for electricity during the excavation work at the department of export goods and Gate 4 and which led to chaos and confusion for more than four days.
He said the cable provides power to the export building, gates and the moveable vehicles of the department, which led to crowding and the gate was completely closed.
He explained that the port administration has temporary addressed the situation by operating the entry of all the containers from the Gate 1 at the port, and also operated moveable machines using generators.
The number of containers that enter the port and are recorded in the registry per day ranges from 1,000 to 1,300 containers.
One clearance employee said the power cut off led to the obstruction of the export business over the past four days, with total paralysis of the port’s operations, not to mention the delays in the entry of trucks and containers, and the disruption in the clearance operations of goods.
He said that the port administration should hold whoever caused this situation accountable.
Other workers from inside the port said they regularly suffer power cuts all year long, which results in the disruption of business and the completion of paperwork and the other handlings.
This is not to mention, they said the total stop of work of all electronic devices and appliances of passports and other government agencies and the customs systems.
When the power is restored, all such systems needed significant time to update their work or repair any electronic malfunction cause by the abrupt power cut off, they complained.