Landslide disrupts Bandung-Jakarta railway services

Antara News, Tuesday, October 26, 2010 16:56 WIB

Purwakarta, West Java (ANTARA News) - Bandung-based Indonesian Railway Company (PT KAI) workers on Tuesday kept attempting to clean the landslide materials burying the Ciganea-Sukatani rail track.

PT KAI`s spokesman, Sugeng Priyono, said here Tuesday that the landslide materials still buried 50-meter-long section of the rail track following several hours of heavy rainfalls on Monday.

The landslide with the height of three up to five meters hit the rail track of Pasiripis block in Mekargalih village, Jatiluhur sub-district, at about 05.00 pm on Monday.

"This landslide is worse than the one happening last Thursday," he said adding that the latest landslide disrupted the flows of Argo Parahyangan train serving Bandung-Jakarta routes.

In cleaning the landslide materials and halting potential landslides of the hill near the rail tracks, PT KAI`s workers used a backhoe, he said.

Sugeng Priyono said the Monday landslide of the 30-meter-high hill happened following torrential rainfalls. This could likely be caused by the unstable soil.

The PT KAI workers would be placed in the Pasiripis block to watch the condition of vulnerable rail track and help train drivers because the landslides frequently hit the curving rail track, he said.

A local resident named Yahya said the Monday landslide hit the 50-meter-long sections of Pasiripis block`s rail track about 15 minutes after a passenger train passed on its way to Bandung.

"The landslide occurred after torrential rain showered the area for several hours," Yahya said.

On Monday, Serpong-Tanahabang commuter train services were also suspended after a flash flood inundated certain rail tracks at Palmerah Railway Station in Central Jakarta.

The Jakarta-based PT KAI`s spokesman, Meteta Rijarulhaq, said the train services were stopped since 4.45 pm local time after a 30-centimeter-high flood submerged the tracks.

The extreme weather phenomena have been hitting various parts of Indonesia, causing such natural disasters as flash floods, landslides, and forest fires.

The most deadly flash floods occurred in Wasior town, West Papua province, on October 3 and 4, killing at least 150 people.

On Sumatra Island, a few hundreds of hot spots were detected before being doused by rainfalls last week.

As a result of the hot spots, caused by forest and bush fires in various parts of the island, the skies of certain parts of Riau and Riau Islands provinces were blanketed by haze.

The haze of forest and bush fires also affected Singapore and Malaysia.