Published November 22, 2008

Woodlands Checkpoint capacity to be expanded

Email this article
Print article
Feedback

THE Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) will spend up to $2.5 million to increase the capacity at Woodlands Checkpoint, as land traffic between Singapore and Malaysia is poised to continue growing.

ICA said yesterday that it would expand the current motorcycle and lorry clearance capacity of the Old Woodlands Checkpoint, which was decommissioned in 2000.

'In the next two years, the integrated resorts and the staging of major events in Singapore such as Apec 2009 and the Youth Olympics will attract significant travel through land checkpoints,' ICA said.

A new customs, immigration and quarantine complex in Johor Baru, set to open next month, may also lead to a faster flow of traffic along the Causeway, ICA said.

The Old Woodlands Checkpoint was replaced by the new one, which was designed to handle 35.2 million vehicles. However, vehicle traffic surpassed that figure within the first year of operation. To ease traffic, ICA re-opened the old checkpoint in July 2007 for clearing arriving motorcycles and in March 2008 for clearing departing lorries. Clearance of both types of vehicles will now be increased further.

Cross-border traffic hit 48.5 million vehicles in 2007.