<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>ICA can do more to solve the Causeway choke
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) reply on Wednesday, "Why Causeway clearance can't be a breeze like Changi".
When I was based in Kuala Lumpur, I commuted almost weekly through the Tuas Second Link. The traffic congestion at the Singapore immigration on an average weekday would take between 30 and 40 minutes to clear between 7pm and 8pm. During off-peak hours, clearance took less than five minutes leaving Singapore and less than 10 minutes coming in. I was told the Woodlands Checkpoint was much worse.
In comparison, Malaysian immigration took easily less than half the time. During peak hours, the clearance time to enter Malaysia was around 10 to 15 minutes. It got unpredictable only during public holidays, when travellers needed to plan their journeys.
The situation used to be the other way round in the early 1980s when Singaporeans used to gripe about the slow and inefficient Malaysian immigration. Now I am among the many Singaporeans who would readily sing praises about Malaysia's efficient immigration clearance.
The ICA has to ask itself how things have reached such a level? How much is really due to stepped-up security?
Perhaps the ICA could come up with some system of performance indicators for varying situations and have a "target clearance time" for different times of the day and for different occasions. And then work towards those targets without jeopardising security. Joe Kwan
My KPI is how effective I'm keeping CSJ and co. at bay. The rest is secondary! *chey*
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) reply on Wednesday, "Why Causeway clearance can't be a breeze like Changi".
When I was based in Kuala Lumpur, I commuted almost weekly through the Tuas Second Link. The traffic congestion at the Singapore immigration on an average weekday would take between 30 and 40 minutes to clear between 7pm and 8pm. During off-peak hours, clearance took less than five minutes leaving Singapore and less than 10 minutes coming in. I was told the Woodlands Checkpoint was much worse.
In comparison, Malaysian immigration took easily less than half the time. During peak hours, the clearance time to enter Malaysia was around 10 to 15 minutes. It got unpredictable only during public holidays, when travellers needed to plan their journeys.
The situation used to be the other way round in the early 1980s when Singaporeans used to gripe about the slow and inefficient Malaysian immigration. Now I am among the many Singaporeans who would readily sing praises about Malaysia's efficient immigration clearance.
The ICA has to ask itself how things have reached such a level? How much is really due to stepped-up security?
Perhaps the ICA could come up with some system of performance indicators for varying situations and have a "target clearance time" for different times of the day and for different occasions. And then work towards those targets without jeopardising security. Joe Kwan
My KPI is how effective I'm keeping CSJ and co. at bay. The rest is secondary! *chey*
