SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): More than 235,000 people left Singapore through the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints on April 6, ahead of the Good Friday long weekend.
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This was the highest daily exit traffic recorded since land borders with Malaysia reopened about a year ago.
A surge of traffic was seen from last Thursday afternoon onwards, and there was heavy congestion at both checkpoints, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Wednesday (April 12).
Close to 1.4 million travellers cleared through the two land checkpoints over the long weekend period from April 6 to 9, ICA added. Good Friday fell on April 7 and the Qing Ming Festival started on April 5.
As more than one million travellers crossed the land checkpoints during the Good Friday weekend in 2019, the current figure is an indication that traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
ICA said the tailback from Malaysia led to delays at Singapore departure points.
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“Vehicular queues extended beyond the Seletar Expressway for Woodlands Checkpoint and along Ayer Rajah Expressway for Tuas Checkpoint,” it added.
The Straits Times earlier reported that live camera feed on the OneMotoring portal showed heavy congestion at both checkpoints throughout the day.
Checks in the evening showed that travellers crossing the Causeway were expected to take between six and seven hours to get into Malaysia, and those crossing at Tuas were expected to take between seven and eight hours.
ICA said it took several measures to help manage congestion and ease the movement of travellers. This included working with the Land Transport Authority and cross-border bus service providers to schedule more buses.
ICA also deployed more officers to areas where more support was needed and updated the traffic situation frequently on platforms such as its Facebook page and through local radio broadcasts. – The Star