ALKHOBAR: The King Fahd Causeway Authority (KFCA) and the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) have started blaming each other for the power outage on Monday that caused heavy traffic congestion on the causeway.

Traffic was halted in all lanes on the causeway until power was restored. The power breakdown lasted for around 75 minutes, during which customs and passport checkpoints had to stop work.

In a statement, the KFCA said: “The causeway suffered a power outage at 7.06 p.m. on Monday due to a malfunction in the main power supply of the Saudi Electricity Company. Therefore, all spare batteries and generators were utilized in all regions except the Saudi travel area.”

The KFCA said that its maintenance team fixed the problem and electricity was restored at 7.43 p.m. It said the Saudi Electricity Company restored the normal power supply by 8.20 p.m.

The KFCA said that all departments on both sides of the bridge dealt with the problem by working at full capacity to eliminate the overcrowding completely by 8.30 p.m.

However, the SEDC said in a statement that the power outage was due to an internal network failure, and that SEC was not responsible for the malfunction.

The company said it received a communication about the power outage on the causeway and immediately dispatched emergency and operations teams to examine the fault. The SEC found that the external power network was working properly and the outage was due to a technical fault in the internal network.

In order to fix the problem, the company helped the bridge technicians and that helped in the fast restoration of electricity.

The company said that several tests were conducted recently in collaboration with the causeway technical department to ensure that back-up generators work properly during such emergencies.

The KFCA had announced prior to Eid that preparations to cope with the increased number of travelers during the holiday include the implementation of development plans in traffic lanes and checkpoints to ensure the smooth flow of travelers without delay.