Hour long traffic jams cripple the King Fahd Bridge connecting Saudi Arabia to Bahrain everyday prompting outrage from motorists. Motorists have said an absence of any intervention by the authorities was to blame for the continuing problem, Al-Watan reported. A source at the Customs Department of the Kingdom of Bahrain said the crowding has continued, especially in the trucking lanes, which resulted in “major losses,” the source said. Motorists reported that on the Bahrain side of the bridge there was only a 15-minute wait. The official denied shorter delay on the Bahraini side of the bridge was due to the fact that the Bahraini Customs operate 24 hours a day, as opposed to the 12-hour workday on the Saudi side. Mosaed Al-Farraj, a regular bridge crosser, said his business suffered as a result of the delay on the bridge. “I had to cancel my trip to Germany because I missed the meetings which I scheduled months ago,” he said. The source added that the Customs Department ordered computer games to be deleted from the department computers to promote maximum working efficiency, indicating that the reasons for delay “are known to all.” The source said that the crowding on the bridge has caused employees to arrive late to work in Bahrain, including King Fahd Bridge employees. The official said passengers should call the designated phone numbers to check the status of traffic ahead of time. An official at the King's Bridge General Organization said that the crowding can be attributed to the routine formalities of the Customs and Passports Department which are currently under review. Abdulhakim Al-Shammari, Member of the Saudi-Bahraini Business Council, said that the extended waiting time causes many food items to spoil. “The red tape of the Bahraini and Saudi departments is to blame for the crowding problem. The customs and committees set up to resolve the problem should work to solve the problem soon,” he said. Al-Shammari said that the members of these committees do not have an interest in ending the crisis because this would mean termination of their mandate. He also partly blamed the Saudi-Bahraini Business Council for failing to resolve the crisis. “The Council is an honorary one and not all of its members are active as required”, he said. Al-Shammari said there are solutions for all problems. He said the bridge connecting Malaysia and Singapore has 250,000 people crossing every day but it has no lines. “I suggest changing the VIP lane into an ordinary lane to ease crowding and also to let officials experience the magnitude of the crisis.” He also suggested merging the customs departments and restricting employees from smoking and watching television to increase productivity. No officials at the Saudi Customs could be reached for immediate comment.
