JOHOR BARU: Many people rushing to work in Singapore via the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (BSI) were caught in long queues following a system failure that disabled all autogates within the bus halls at the checkpoint here.
The three-and-a-half-hour failure, which occurred between 3am and 6.30am yesterday, not only knocked out the immigration system but also affected other agencies, as it was due to a network problem.
Customs was also forced to carry out manual clearance of heavy vehicles during this period.
The Immigration Department immediately deployed additional manpower to clear the long queues manually, and the situation returned to normal once the network was restored.
A Home Ministry official, when contacted, said that the outage was due to a network switch migration being carried out at the checkpoint, with work expected to continue until mid-March.
“All agencies were informed about the scheduled maintenance, but the work was supposed to be done at midnight when there is no crowd, but something must have happened when the outage extended until 6.30am.
“Between 4am and 7am is peak time, as tens of thousands of people rush to Singapore for work,” the official said, adding that building management should carry out such maintenance during off-peak hours and have a backup system in place in case of failure.
Rosli Mat Hassan, 42, who commutes to Singapore daily for work, would like to see a proper backup system installed at the checkpoint to prevent such breakdowns.
“Maintenance should be done at midnight instead of during peak hours,” he said, adding that the government should invest in a foolproof immigration clearance system that does not break down and cause embarrassment.
He said that although the latest disruption was for a short while, it was the second such incident at the checkpoint this year.
Another user, known as Yang, took to social media to complain about the frequent breakdowns, saying they made it harder for people to earn a living.
At press time, no official statement had been issued by the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency (AKPS) regarding the outage.
The Star had earlier reported that in January, foreigners were advised to use the new National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) when clearing immigration at BSI following a system failure involving autogates.
AKPS said in a statement then that, besides NIIse, foreigners could also use the manual counters to clear immigration.
