According to the shop assistant, businesses have been affected badly by the massive traffic jams leading to the Woodlands Checkpoint. -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN

View more photos

That is how shop assistant K.F. Kwok describes the Woodlands Centre Road market, with businesses affected badly by the massive traffic jams leading to the Woodlands Checkpoint.

Ever since Jemaah Islamiah (JI) leader Mas Selamat Kastari escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre on Feb 27, security checks at the checkpoint have been tightened.

These include fingerprint scans for all adults and a full inspection of all vehicles entering and leaving the country.

The jams, sometimes lasting up to eight hours, have not just got motorists fuming but also the shopkeepers in five blocks - 1A to 5A - in Woodlands Centre Road. These four-storey blocks house a mix of shops and flats.

'This place is so quiet, we can now bowl along the walkways,' Madam Kwok, 50, complained.

Mr Deng Rong Hua, 73, who sells clothes in the Woodlands Centre Road market, said: 'I've lost some Malaysian customers because they dare not enter Singapore due to the jams.'

Malaysians make up half of his customers and he has suffered a 10 per cent drop in sales.

Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of The Sunday Times.