I asked a Parliamentary question today about the cause of the power outage at Woodlands Checkpoint on 9 Oct that caused a huge congestion of traffic:
*4. Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what is the cause of the failure of the backup power generator at Woodlands Checkpoint on 9 October 2022 despite having been serviced and tested the day before; and (b) what measures, including manual workarounds, does the Ministry have in place to ensure that all border checkpoints are able to continue performing their essential functions, including immigration clearance, in the event of an extended power outage.
I asked some supplementary questions after the Minister of State (Home Affairs) replied to my PQ:
I wish to thank ICA immigration officers who work hard under trying conditions to clear 400,000 or more travellers through the checkpoints every day. I’m sure individual officers are doing their very best and their work is much appreciated.
However, I would like to ask the MOS if there are systemic bottlenecks that ICA can look into to tackle the long waiting times at our land checkpoints. If there are 300,000 travellers a day and each takes one-and-a-half hours to clear immigration, that’s 450,000 man-hours of productive time lost per day.
One observation by travellers is that sometimes not all the immigration car counters are open. I understand that because of limited manpower, ICA dynamically deploys officers to counters in busier zones, leaving counters closed in another zone.
Can ICA prioritise the recruitment and training of more officers so that all the car counters are manned to clear travellers in all zones?
Secondly, can ICA increase the number of automated clearance counters for vehicles, especially motorcycles, to relieve some dependence on manned counters?
