Power outage at Woodlands Checkpoint delays immigration clearance
Commuters and motorists using the Woodlands Checkpoint early on Sunday morning were directed to the Second Link at Tuas after a power outage delayed immigration clearance.
The outage started before 1am and power was restored several hours later.
"Immigration clearance and power at Woodlands Checkpoint has been restored," the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Facebook at 6.25am.
It also advised travellers to check the One Motoring website for updates before starting their journeys.
Several commuters took to Facebook to complain that they were stuck at the Woodlands Checkpoint for hours.
Ms Venessa Tan, who was on a bus from Singapore to Johor Bahru, said the Woodlands Checkpoint was dark with only emergency lights. "(ICA) officers had to hand write our passport info," she said on Facebook.
Other motorists said the diversion to the Second Link caused traffic jams there too.
Ms Muzafira Majab, who was returning to Singapore, said on Facebook at 3.39am that she was stuck at the Second Link. "We came from (Woodlands) and was stuck for 1 hour 10 mins. Detoured, only to be stuck at Second Link for God knows how many hours."
ICA later explained that the failure of a backup power generator during a scheduled maintenance of the power source at the Woodlands Checkpoint had led to the power outage.
The backup generator was to have provided electricity at the checkpoint when the main power source was being maintained, but it failed despite being serviced and tested earlier in the day, ICA said.
The maintenance started at 11.40pm and the backup generator failed at 12.20am. Power was restored around 4am, and immigration clearance operations gradually resumed from around 5.15am.
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