Skip to main content

New! You can personalise your feed. Try it now

Advertisement

Advertisement

Woodlands Checkpoint expansion will mean more vehicles on Causeway, cause backflow in Johor: Immigration dept chief

JOHOR BARU — The expansion of Woodlands Checkpoint, when completed, will result in more vehicles passing through the Causeway and cause a backflow of traffic on Johor’s side, the Johor Immigration Department warned on Sunday (Jan 20).

When the expansion of Woodlands Checkpoint is completed and more vehicles go through Woodlands, a backflow of traffic will occur on Johor’s side, according to the Johor Immigration Department.

When the expansion of Woodlands Checkpoint is completed and more vehicles go through Woodlands, a backflow of traffic will occur on Johor’s side, according to the Johor Immigration Department.

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

JOHOR BARU — The expansion of Woodlands Checkpoint, when completed, will result in more vehicles passing through the Causeway and cause a backflow of traffic on Johor’s side, the Johor Immigration Department warned on Sunday (Jan 20).

This comes as the department admitted that there were problems in the Secured Automated Clearance System for Malaysian Citizen Motorcyclists (M-BIKE) infrastructure in the first year of implementation, although it insists that they have been solved.

Its director, Datuk Rohaizi Bahari, said, however, that it might not be able to cope with an increase in the number of motorcyclists in the future.

“I admit that the number of counters is not enough to cope with large crowds during public and school holidays,” he said.

“If the number of motorcyclists continues to increase, the facilities at the Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) will not be able to cope.

“The Singaporean government is expanding its capacity at the Woodlands Checkpoint. It has demolished the old Woodlands town centre to build more Immigration and Customs clearance counters for incoming vehicles.

“When that project is completed and more vehicles go through Woodlands, a backflow of traffic will occur on Johor’s side, unless we expand our own capacity for border clearance.”

He said M-BIKE was implemented to improve security and speed up cross-border checks. He said the system had allowed for better redeployment of checkpoint staff.

“But I do agree with the suggestion for more traffic police to be deployed at checkpoints to control the flow of motorcyclists.”

Rohaizi denied that M-BIKE was unreliable after more than two years of implementation, saying that it was successful in stamping out illegal border crossings.

He said the system was monitored by the authorities.

Even the vendor in charge of managing M-BIKE needed to make sure the system runs at an optimum level at all times, he said.

There is a minimum downtime (outage time) that the M-BIKE system is allowed to experience. The vendor needs to minimise downtime as the company is penalised if the system experiences any downtime that exceeds the minimum requirement.

“The system is audited by the National Audit Department. It is monitored for its effectiveness constantly,” said Rohaizi.

Sources told the New Sunday Times that the vendor would be penalised if it failed to maintain at least a 70 per cent operations rate at all M-BIKE counters.

A RM20,000 penalty was imposed whenever the system failed to detect additional passengers on bikes, the sources said.

It is learnt that a renewal of the system is to be conducted by the first quarter of this year.

The Johor Immigration Department recently announced on Facebook that the M-BIKE system would be temporarily closed at the Sultan Abu Bakar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (CIQ) at the Second Link between 11pm on Thursday and 3am on Friday, and again from 11pm on Saturday to 4am on Sunday. The closure is for system maintenance.

There are 100 M-BIKE counters at the BSI CIQ at the Causeway, and 50 at the Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ.

Razali Tompang, who co-founded the “JB TRACER: Johor Baru Traffic, Crime and Community Service Report” Facebook page, said he was disappointed that Malaysian authorities could not get the M-BIKE right even when it was modelled on a more effective system used for motorcyclists in Singapore.

He said Singapore’s motorcyclist biometric scan system was simpler as it provided two scanners for passports, two scanners for thumbprints and six overhead cameras, which facilitated checks even when there were pillion riders.

“Why didn’t they just transfer the technology? Why must they re-invent the wheel?” said Razali, who commutes to Singapore for work. NEW SUNDAY TIMES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.