JOHOR BARU, July 23 — The notorious congestion at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex could soon be a thing of the past following the introduction of electronic payment at its Immigration counters.

Chairman of the BSI task force overseeing congestion, Andrew Chen Kah Eng, said the waiting time was successfully reduced during a test run today after travellers were able to make electronic payment at its counters.

He said the operational testing at BSI was done this morning.

“Based on our observation, the operation testing showed that by making electronic payment available at the same counter, it shortens the waiting period for each vehicle entering Malaysia (via Johor Baru) using BSI,” Chen told Malay Mail today.

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He said this after witnessing the testing with officers from the Home Ministry, Public Works Department (JKR), Road Transport Department (RTD) and also the BSI’s management team.

However, Chen said that there is no firm date yet on when the system will be officially implemented as it was still in the evaluation stage.

“So far, the progress has been promising and we will wait for the respective progress reports from the various government departments and agencies before implementation,” he said.

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Chen, who is also the Stulang assemblyman, said in the past, the booths for paying both the road charge (RC) and toll for cars were located about four metres apart from the Immigration counters.

“A car has to stop twice for immigration clearance and then make payments at another counter,” he said, adding that he hoped that the system can be applied to all 38 counters in BSI.

Johor Baru’s BSI is connected to the busy Johor Causeway, which is one of two land routes connecting Johor and Singapore. The other is the Second Link Crossing, located in Tanjung Kupang near Gelang Patah.

It is estimated that more than 450,000 people enter and exit Singapore from Johor via both the Johor Causeway in Johor Baru and the Second Link Crossing on a daily basis, in what can be described as one of the region’s busiest border crossings.