Traffic through the Tuas and Woodlands checkpoints is expected to build up in the week leading to the Lunar New Year and will be particularly heavy from Thursday, 26 January to Tuesday, 31 January 2017, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) informed on its press release on 24 January.
As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, travelers should expect a longer than usual waiting time as there will be tight security checks at the checkpoints, ICA said.
During non-peak period, around 400,000 travelers make the daily overland commute between Singapore and Malaysia and this number is expected to increase to 430,000 during peak periods.
To speed up the queues, ICA issued an advisory for travelers not to bring in prohibited items like firecrackers, and to check if the controlled items like bak kwa they are bringing in are from approved countries. Malaysia is not an approved country for meat products like bak kwa, poultry or eggs.
Last year, about 800 cases of Singaporeans were detected at Singapore’s land checkpoints for using wrong passports or passports earlier reported as lost or stolen.
“Such cases will lead to delays and cause inconvenience to the passport holders and other checkpoints users,” ICA said, “Passports which had been reported lost or stolen can no longer be used for traveling even if they are found subsequently.”
These passports will be cancelled by ICA, and any attempt to use them is an offence under the Passports Act and may be punished by a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both.
Passports that have been recovered must be surrendered to the ICA within 14 days to prevent abuse by persons with ill-intent. Failure to surrender the recovered passport is an offence under the Passports Regulations and may be punished by a fine of up to $3,000 or imprisonment for up to 2 years, or both, the press release stated.
“The ICA will continue to take necessary measures to improve clearance efficiency as much as possible without compromising security. We seek travelers’ understanding and cooperation when using the land checkpoints,” the ICA said.
Motorists are advised to check the traffic situation at both land checkpoints before embarking on their journey through LTA’s Expressway Monitoring & Advisory System (EMAS) installed along the AYE and BKE respectively.
To check the latest traffic conditions the public could:
- Call the traffic information hotline at 6863-0117;
- Tune in to the radio for the latest traffic conditions;
- Visit LTA’s One Motoring website or MyTransport.SG portal.
