By Chong Chee Kin

THE old Woodlands Checkpoint, pressed into service in March to ease Causeway congestion, looks set to stay open permanently.

Plans are afoot to open lanes during peak hours by the end of the year for motorcyclists, in addition to those now used by buses and trucks, travelling to and from Malaysia.

It is not known if there are plans for the reopened old checkpoint to have lanes for cars as well.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has also called for tenders to construct new offices and to refurbish the current premises, which were abandoned in 1999 when the new checkpoint was opened.

Documents obtained by The Straits Times show that the ICA wants motorcycle clearance booths as well as a two-storey building with a control room.

In March, the old checkpoint, which is about a kilometre away from the new one, was opened to ease the clearance of heavy vehicles.

Though the facility was officially closed, infrastructure such as the roads, clearance lanes and main buildings were never demolished.

In fact, they were well-maintained - as though they would be needed again some day.

Sure enough, the current checkpoint is operating beyond its capacity. Designed to handle 35.2 million vehicles a year by 2010, it had to deal with about 37.8 million vehicles passing through last year.

More are expected over the next few years with major economic initiatives such as the opening of two integrated resorts in Singapore by 2010.

When contacted, the ICA confirmed it was expanding. "There is a need to augment our infrastructural capabilities of our checkpoint to meet the increasing volume of travellers plying between Malaysia and Singapore," its spokesman said.

She added that full details would be released some time next month.

Motorcyclists who regularly pass through the checkpoint welcomed the plan.

Mr Victor Tan, 25, a sales executive who drives up to Malaysia at least once every fortnight, said: "Even if there are jams, which there probably will be, having another checkpoint will halve the waiting time."

At least 20,000 motorcyclists - many of them Malaysians - travel in and out of Singapore through the Woodlands Checkpoint for work every day.

Measures, such as the implementation of a biometric identification system for motorcyclists, have eased the congestion by cutting down the processing time to less than a second.

But the sheer volume of vehicles during peak hours means that waiting time can still be as long as two hours, said Malaysian Joseph Lee, 31.

"People are either going to work or trying to rush home. No matter how fast we clear immigration, there will still be queues," he said in Mandarin.

Agreeing, mechanic Benny Chong, 27, added: "During peak hours, the queues are so long and the exhaust fumes from all the bikes and cars just get to you, especially at the end of the day.

Anything that will shorten the wait will be great."

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 23, 2008.

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