KUALA LUMPUR — A Malaysian Cabinet committee has proposed six short-term measures to beat congestion at Johor’s checkpoints, especially at the Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex which links to the Causeway and the Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ (KSAB) complex at the Second Link.

The committee, chaired by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is also studying the possibility of having a single agency manage the country’s borders and checkpoints, reported news agency Bernama on Thursday (July 4), citing a statement from the DPM’s office.

The measures to tackle congestion include: 

• Mobilising officers from less congested counters to more crowded ones

• Opening contraflow lanes for cars, which allow traffic going in one direction to use lanes meant for opposing traffic

• Making checkpoint staff work compulsory overtime shift from 7am to 8am, and 

• Ensuring all counters for the MBike automated motorcycle clearance system remain open.

Two other measures involve boosting infrastructure at checkpoints — the newly-reopened Malaysia Automated Clearance System (MACS) at the Second Link, and a procurement tender for MACS valued at RM9 million (S$2.95 million) by December . 

In its statement, the committee said it recognised the congestion and management challenges at the two checkpoints and agreed on the six short-term improvements.

In the long term, the committee also agreed to increase the number of MBike counters for motorcycles going out of Malaysia, include biometric exemption for exiting visitors, fill up 99 per cent of Immigration Department posts, and leverage bilateral cooperation between Malaysia and Singapore to set up a single clearance.

The committed also decided to extend the use of autogates to foreign visitors, increase the number of Customs scanning machines, and raise the number of lorry counters at KSAB to be on par with Tuas Checkpoint. AGENCIES