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)