SINGAPORE - Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal will undergo a $20 million upgrade to modernise its facilities and increase its passenger capacity, through automation as well as better use of space.

Built in 1995, the terminal will undergo upgrading in stages from January to December, with no changes to ferry services and schedules, said operator Singapore Cruise Centre (SCC) in a statement on Feb 2.

The terminal last underwent a major renovation in 2007.

SCC chief executive Jacqueline Tan noted that the revamp will expand the terminal’s capacity by 20 per cent to more than three million passengers, from the current 2.7 million.

The new features, which will be ready in January 2025, include the installation of 20 self-service check-in kiosks, four unmanned bag-drop machines, and more automated immigration clearance gates similar to the ones at Changi Airport, said SCC.

These will speed up departure procedures for passengers, added the operator.

At present, passengers have to buy tickets or exchange their online tickets for physical boarding passes and check in at ferry operator counters, which are manned by workers.

They would then need to check in their bags at staffed bag-drop counters before clearing immigration.

The terminal now has three manned bag-drop counters, as well as a mix of automated immigration clearance lanes and staffed immigration counters.

With the revamp, passengers will be able to check in by themselves at the self-service kiosks, drop their bags off at machines and clear immigration via automated lanes. However, manned options will still be available for passengers who prefer to speak directly to staff.

In addition, the redesign of the departure hall will increase its size and capacity by about 70 per cent, allowing it to hold around 200 more passengers.

Through optimising the available space, an unoccupied field between the arrival and departure halls will be converted into an outdoor play area for families with young children to gather after they clear immigration, added SCC.

The departure area will also be home to two lounges for business-class passengers, up from the single lounge it now has.

There will be revamped ferry operator counters, where passengers can buy tickets, collect boarding passes and check in, along with more food and beverage outlets near the terminal’s entrance and in the departure area.

Throughout the terminal, the toilets will also be revamped, with interim container toilets made available to passengers from March to October when works are under way.

Hybrid cooling systems – a combination of fan ventilation and air-conditioning – will also be added to make the terminal more energy-efficient. These will complement the terminal’s solar panels that power a third of its daytime power needs, SCC said.

Renovation in the passenger areas will be done in phases from March, and take place only from 9.30pm to 6am daily to minimise disturbance to ferry passengers.

Areas will be hoarded off in stages for construction to be done, said SCC.

For instance, each ferry operator counter will take turns to undergo renovation and continue serving passengers in a makeshift spot.

The existing boarding turnstiles, where passengers scan their boarding passes in the departure hall to enter the berths, and automated immigration clearance gates will also be upgraded.

This is the first phase of renovation work the terminal will undergo, added SCC, as part of its strategy to capture the post-pandemic travel rebound.

It noted that a few hundred passengers use the ferry terminal monthly as a transfer point for flights at Changi Airport. 

The operator said it also has plans to automate the boarding process at the terminal’s ferry berths, though details are not available yet.

Some 1.3 million passengers used Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal in 2023 on their way to and from Batam and Bintan in Indonesia, and Desaru in Malaysia, according to SCC.

The terminal handled more than two million passengers every year before the pandemic.

Four ferry operators – Batam Fast, Bintan Resort Ferries, Majestic Fast Ferry and Sindo Ferry – call at the terminal.

Passengers The Straits Times interviewed welcomed the upgrade.

Real estate analyst Faradina Rahman, 27, who heads to Batam at least once or twice a year via the ferry terminal, said the automated check-in and bag-drop kiosks would be much faster than the current manned counters.

Describing the check-in situation as “crowded and slow” on Saturday mornings, she added that she had been stuck in a 20-minute queue at a ferry operator counter and caught her ferry only in the nick of time.

Ms Faradina hopes the new features would ease the queues on weekends.

Assistant engineer Muhammad Asdali, 41, agreed that the automated processes would be a good improvement.

He welcomed the move to have a mixture of automated and manned check-in kiosks, as employees could help passengers if the automated kiosks run into problems.

Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal is among three ferry terminals SCC operates. The others are the international cruise and regional ferry terminal at HarbourFront Centre and Pasir Panjang Ferry Terminal.