More than 235,000 travellers left S’pore via land checkpoints on April 6, a record since borders with Malaysia reopened

SINGAPORE — A record of more than 235,000 travellers departed Singapore via the land checkpoints at Woodlands and Tuas a day before the Good Friday long weekend. This made it the highest daily exit traffic recorded since land borders with Malaysia fully reopened last April after closures due to Covid-19.

In a statement on Wednesday (April 12), the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said that close to 1.4 million travellers cleared through both checkpoints from April 6 to 9.

A surge was seen from last Thursday afternoon onwards, which led to heavy congestions at the checkpoints and continuous tailbacks from Malaysia.

During the traffic jams, many travellers also used social media to post about the long waiting times needed to clear the checkpoints.

This was after ICA issued an earlier travel advisory on March 30 to advise people to postpone non-essential travel plans, in anticipation of heavy traffic at both checkpoints leading up to the Good Friday long weekend and the Qing Ming Festival, when some Chinese visit ancestral tombs in remembrance of the deceased.

In its earlier statement, ICA said that more than one million travellers had crossed the land checkpoints during the Good Friday weekend back in 2019, and it then advised travellers to postpone non-urgent travel to avoid getting caught in the congestion.

To manage the jams and facilitate movement of travellers at the land checkpoints during the recent long weekend, ICA said that it took several measures, which included:

• Working with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and cross-border bus service providers to schedule more buses
• Working with LTA to implement the double continuous white line before the long weekend along the viaduct leading into the departure zones of Woodlands Checkpoint. This allowed ICA and the Traffic Police to enforce and take actions against errant drivers who used the motorcycle lane to cut the queue of cars waiting along the viaduct to enter Woodlands Checkpoint for immigration clearance
• Deploying more officers to zones that require more support based on the traffic situation, including on April 6
• Providing frequent traffic updates through radio stations, its Facebook page, and the Expressway Monitoring & Advisory System on two expressways
• Introducing the automated clearance initiative in January, which allows Singapore residents and eligible first-time foreign visitors including Malaysians to clear immigration via the automated lanes at the passenger halls of the land checkpoints