In a bid to speed up the process of customs clearance, a new
border checkpoint near the 24-hour Huanggang Checkpoint is expected
to complete construction before December and be put into operation
next July, a spokesman for the local port office said
yesterday.
The new Futian Checkpoint, 100 meters from the Huanggang
Checkpoint, is being built to alleviate the overcrowding at the
latter caused by tens of thousands of passengers and vehicles
crossing the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border every day.
Ye Wenwu, the spokesman for the local port office that is in
charge of overland checkpoints, told Shenzhen Daily
that the planned 160 checking and clearance counters would allow up
to 40,000 travelers to cross the border every hour, making the
Futian Checkpoint the second-largest overland checkpoint after the
one at Luohu.
"The daily maximum passenger flow could reach 300,000, twice the
flow recorded at the Huanggang Checkpoint," Ye said.
Ye confirmed that the Huanggang Metro Station on the No. 4 Line
would open around the same time as the new checkpoint.
By walking through a 204-meter-long corridors with air
conditioning and escalators, cross-border travelers who get off at
the Huanggang Metro Station can reach Lok Ma Chau, the northwest
New Territories of Hong Kong, and then transfer to a branch line of
the Kowloon-Canton Railway East Rail.
Zhou Qing, a spokesman for the construction office of the Futian
Checkpoint, told the newspaper that the 182-million-yuan project,
started in December 2004, is in its final stage of construction and
will be handed over to the port office in December.
However, Ye denied reports in Chinese newspapers that the new
checkpoint will replace the Huanggang Checkpoint and become the
only checkpoint in that area.
"A 24-hour cross-border service will be continuously available
at the Huanggang Checkpoint, while passengers will have an extra
choice of a more efficient one."
He said the Futian Checkpoint will close at night when the daily
metro and train service stops operation in Shenzhen and Hong
Kong.
With trade growing between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, over 100,000
passengers and 25,000 vehicles pass through Huanggang on
weekdays.
(Shenzhen Daily August 31, 2006)