Floods distrupting service at Jakarta's Tanah Abang Railway Station

Jakarta (Antaranews Bogor) - Commuter line trains serving passengers for Jakarta and its satellite towns of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabodetabek) through the Tanah Abang Railway Station remain closed due to floods, a train executive said.

"The rail tracks are still submerged five centimetres deep. The water began to flood the rail tracks when heavy rains fell last night," Agus Komaruddin, the chief spokesman of the Indonesian railway company PT KAI, said here on Saturday.

He added that the water peaked at the Tanah Abang Railway Stations at 6 am on Saturday, with flood waters reaching 10 cm deep on rail tracks.

As a result, commuter line train services for the Parung Panjang or Serpong to Tanah Abang were disrupted. Trains operated as far as the Palmerah Station.

Torrential rains fell on Jakarta in the past several days, sending flood waters through the capital city and causing a number of roads in Jakarta to be cut off on Friday and Saturday. The floods were worsened by the overflowing of the Ciliwung River at the Manggarai Sluice.

The water gauge at the Manggarai Sluice reported that the water surface had risen to 950 cm, requiring the declaration of the alert I level.

Waters also inundated roads in Jalan Rasuna Said and Jalan Sudirman, rising to a depth of about 5cm to 10cm.

The Jakarta Police's Traffic Management Center (TMC) also reported that waters also inundated parts of Jalan Mangga Besar, West Jakarta, areas in front of Gading apartment, and Jalan Terusan gusti Ngurah Rai in East Jakarta. Parts of Jalan Layur Rawamangung, Matraman and Jalan KRT Radjiman in East Jakarta, and Jalan Cikini in Central Jakarta were also submerged.

As a result, seven people have died in the capital city Jakarta in the past few days, according to the Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).

"Until now, the number of deaths has been seven. The causes vary from illnesses, falls or drowning to electrocution," the BPBD's head of information and control sector, Bambang Surya Putra, said here on Saturday.

In view of this, he called on all residents affected by flood waters to be careful and to immediately evacuate themselves to safer locations.

"We hope there will no more deaths because of the floods now currently affecting the city. People affected by them must immediately move to evacuation centers. They must not stay at home for the sake of their own safety," he said.
(A014/INE/B003)