Border System Failure Strands Thousands at Malaysia-Singapore Checkpoints
- Amali Subodha
- 42 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Hadisur Rahman, JadeTimes Staff
Thousands of travellers were left in limbo as a major system failure crippled automated immigration gates at Malaysia’s two principal land checkpoints with Singapore, creating hours-long queues at one of the world’s busiest border crossings. The disruption, which followed days of intermittent faults, intensified Saturday as weekend traffic surged.
The worst congestion was reported at the Sultan Iskandar Building Complex in Johor Bahru, where foreign visitors faced waits of up to two hours to clear immigration. The nearby Sultan Abu Bakar Complex also experienced disruptions, though officials said conditions remained manageable for most travellers. In total, dozens of autogates were affected across entry and exit points, compounding delays for both vehicles and pedestrians.
Sources indicated that at least 39 autogates at BSI’s entry points and 29 at the exits were grappling with faults in the days leading up to the outage. The outage also extended to other transport nodes, including the KTM railway station at BSI, complicating efforts to move people across the border. Malaysian citizens using local passports could still access functioning autogates, but the broader clearance system was compromised, leaving many travellers stuck in long lines.
Authorities urged patience as engineers and border officials worked to diagnose the root cause and restore full service. There was no immediate word on a timeline for repairs or on whether normal operations would resume before Sunday’s peak travel period.
Commuters and cross-border visitors expressed frustration with the disruption, which interrupted business, tourism, and daily travel. Officials emphasized that security and border integrity remained the priority, with contingency measures in place while the autogate system was being repaired. Updates from the border agencies continued to reflect ongoing efforts to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.
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