Thousands of motorcyclists jammed at JB side of Causeway 2 days in a row

Looks quite crowded.

Belmont Lay | February 21, 2017, 06:44 PM

Thousands of motorcyclists coming into Singapore were stuck at the Johor Baru immigration checkpoint on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 20 and 21.

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This was after the new automated gantries at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex malfunctioned for a second consecutive day, according to Sin Chew Daily.

The automated gantry system called MBIKE was only fully implemented on Feb. 16.

MBIKE was supposed to reduce congestion at entry points between Malaysia and Singapore by up to 50 percent.

Utilising a radio frequency identification device sticker attached to the holder's passport and the passport holder's thumb print, the gantry gate will open automatically.

However, the Johor Immigration Department said some motorcyclists avoided having their passports inspected by tailgating other motorcyclists, while others not registered with the system used the MBIKE lane.

The same problem on Monday caused a three-hour jam starting at 6am.

There are 50 MBIKE counters and 12 other counters for manual checks at the CIQ. The motorcyclists had to be channelled to the manual counters instead.

As a result of not having cleared customs properly, 38 motorcyclists were detained for going through the gantries without providing their passports to the Immigration Department.

 

Top photo via Faisal Ishak Twitter

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