The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has rejected a report that a power failure at Woodlands Checkpoint caused the traffic snarl along the Causeway and on several roads in Johor Bahru on Wednesday, according to CNA.
Responding to the broadcaster's queries, an ICA spokesperson said no electricity disruption occurred at the checkpoint that day. The statement was published on Thursday, a day after the congestion.
The clarification follows a report by Malaysian newspaper The Star, which said the gridlock began around noon on Wednesday and attributed it to a major outage at the Singapore checkpoint.
Why it matters
The Causeway is one of the busiest land crossings in the world, and any disruption there quickly spreads into both countries. For the thousands of people who cross daily for work, school and deliveries, an unexplained closure raises questions about how quickly authorities communicate and clear problems. ICA's statement is an attempt to correct the public record before the account of a blackout takes hold, and it puts the emphasis on maintenance scheduling and incidents on the Malaysian side of the crossing.
What ICA says happened
In ICA's account, the day's difficulties began with scheduled electrical maintenance at the Old Woodlands Checkpoint, carried out between 10am and 2pm. During that window, arriving lorries could not be cleared at the old facility, though clearance of lorries continued at Woodlands Checkpoint itself, the spokesperson said.
Even so, some Singapore-bound goods vehicles queued on the Causeway while the old checkpoint was out of action. Normal operations there resumed at about 4pm.
The situation worsened later in the afternoon. ICA said two lorries broke down on the Malaysian side of the Causeway, heading towards Singapore, at roughly 4.30pm and 6.30pm. Each breakdown blocked one of the three arrival lanes, and queues stretched from the breakdown points back into Malaysia. The spokesperson said the evening peak, when vehicle numbers are already high, made the congestion worse.
The first lorry was not cleared until 9.50pm, and the second was removed at about 12.22am on Thursday, according to ICA. Throughout that stretch, traffic heading for Woodlands Checkpoint was disrupted.
ICA said it used its Facebook page to warn travellers about the breakdowns and likely delays, and to tell them when the blocked lane was open again.
Travel times and the Malaysian response
According to figures from Checkpoint.sg cited by CNA, the journey from Johor Bahru to Singapore took between 60 and 90 minutes as of 10.15pm on Wednesday. Travelling in the opposite direction, from Singapore to Johor Bahru, took 50 to 75 minutes.
On the Malaysian side, The Star reported that every counter was staffed at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar customs, immigration and quarantine complex. Malaysian authorities also opened extra lanes to ease the build-up and brought in additional police around the complex and its main access roads to handle the evening rush of workers leaving Singapore, the newspaper said.
The two accounts differ on the root cause but agree that Wednesday produced significant delays in both directions. ICA's version places the trigger in planned maintenance and roadside incidents rather than a failure of the checkpoint's power supply.
Travellers planning to cross should check ICA's social media advisories and live traffic updates before setting out, particularly during peak hours and around public holidays, when volumes at both Woodlands and Tuas are typically elevated.
