Johor taking steps to ease congestion at Causeway, Menteri Besar Onn says

Johor will install more electronic gates for travellers on foot and upgrade traffic lanes at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

SINGAPORE - The Johor state government is taking several steps to reduce human and traffic congestion on its side of the Causeway, one of the world’s busiest border crossings, Johor Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi said on Thursday.

Johor will install more electronic gates for travellers on foot and upgrade traffic lanes at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex in Johor Bahru, he said when tabling the 2023 budget at the state legislative assembly in Iskandar Puteri, formerly Nusajaya.

His budget speech was uploaded on the Facebook page of the Johor chief minister.

He said an average of 211,000 people pass through the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) CIQ at the Causeway daily since the borders between Singapore and Malaysia were fully reopened on April 1, as curbs imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic were eased.

Before the pandemic, about 415,000 people used the Causeway and the Tuas Second Link daily.

Datuk Onn said more electronic gates, or e-gates, will be installed for Malaysian users travelling on foot or public buses. There will be 32 e-gates installed, up from the 14 now at the entry points from Singapore, and 26 e-gates from the 14 currently at the exit points.

Singaporeans and other foreigners crossing into, and leaving, JB will also soon be able to use the e-gates, he said. Currently, they have to get their passports stamped manually by immigration officers.

“The immigration department will expand the use of e-gates for foreigners. This will reduce congestion at BSI,” said Mr Onn Hafiz, without elaborating. 

To ease traffic build-up at peak hours, he said Johor officials are looking into allowing “light vehicles” to use lorry lanes for immigration clearance.

The plans announced by the chief minister are among a slew of projects being carried out by the Johor state and Malaysian federal government at the two CIQs.

Last month, Home Ministry secretary-general Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz revealed the addition of 25 automated clearance points for Malaysian motorcyclists, and an upgrading of the bus terminal at Johor’s CIQ at the Second Link.

The ministry was also looking into allowing toll payments using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for vehicles from Singapore, he said. These small tags are placed at the front of a vehicle, allowing an electronic reader at a gantry above or at the side of a road to withdraw toll payments.

Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad added that future planning would take into account the proposed use of RFID technology, by at least 65,000 vehicles from Singapore registered with Malaysia’s Road Transport Department, at the country’s entry points.

Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz on Thursday presented a budget surplus of RM2.44 million (S$755,000), after recording deficit budgets in 2021 and 2022.

The state government is expected to bring in revenue of RM1.734 billion next year, with RM1.731 billion in expenditure, he said.

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