KUCHING: The Ministry of Infrastructure and Ports Development will inspect Senari Terminal at Jalan Bako tomorrow (April 19) to see if it has any shortcomings.
Its minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing said certain quarters had expressed their concerns about ongoing congestion at the terminal which has been causing delays in delivering containers to importers.
“I am going to check the port tomorrow to find what the problems are,” he told New Sarawak Tribune when contacted on Sunday (April 18).
Masing, who is also deputy chief minister, did not want to make further comments until he knows what the problems are.
On April 17, Sarawak Shipping Association chairman David Chung told New Sarawak Tribune that hauliers had to queue for long hours to pick up containers at the terminal to send goods to importers.
On a recent computer outage at the terminal, he acknowledged that it did slow down the port operations.
“We hope that the authorities have a back-up plan or upgrade to a better system in order to prevent similar incidents from re-occurring,” he said.
He added since the breakdown of the computer system, there were cases where hauliers had to queue from early morning until evening and still could not pick up a single container.
On April 13, the Kuching Port Authority (KPA) stated that on March 27, a computer outage happened at Senari Terminal due to water ingress into the electrical conduit to the computer room resulting in an electrical short circuit.
Following that incident, KPA implemented alternative procedures on March 29 to continue its delivery services combining manual procedures with online application and its back-up server in Pending Terminal.
KPA general manager Robert Lau said by April 13, the volume of delivery and receipt of containers had returned to the normal level before the accident.
