Eager holidaymakers will make Hong Kong's immigration checkpoints fairly crowded and busy as 7.67 million people are expected to pass through its land, sea and air control points during the Christmas and New Year festive period, the Immigration Department said here Thursday.

 

The passenger turnover is equivalent to putting the entire population in Hong Kong on the run during the coming festive holidays.

 

A spokesman for the Immigration Department said the peak period for passenger traffic during the festive period will be from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2 with about 3.49 million passengers expected to use the busy Lo Wu control point bordering ShenZhen City.

 

The spokesman said the highest daily traffic is expected to reach 350,000 on Saturday.

 

To cope with the anticipated traffic, the Immigration Department has suspended leave applications from staff working at control points and mobilized 120 extra officers to support the airport, sea and land boundary checkpoints during the holiday period.

 

Additional security guards will also be employed to provide crowd management support at Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau control points, according to the Immigration Department.

 

A Joint Command Center was already set up at Lo Wu control point to prepare for coming travel rush, comprising the Immigration Department, the Police, the Customs and Excise Department, the Transport Department, the railway company and the Shenzhen city authorities.

 

All parties concerned have drawn up contingency measures to handle any untoward incidents and to oversee traffic conditions during the festive period. If necessary, the Lo Wu control point will implement the Contra-flow Scheme to relieve congestion.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2006)