Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Immigration and Customs officers at the facility yesterday morning, he said it was vital to upgrade the ICQS complex to reduce congestion there especially during peak hours.

During the meeting, he was informed by the officers that the long queues endured by motorists during peak hours were due to a ‘bottleneck’ between the Immigration counters and Customs counters.

In view of this, he told the officers to submit a proposal for the upgrading of the ICQS to ensure a smoother process of Immigration and Customs procedures there, and to further improve traffic flow.

“This ICQS has been operational since 2008, so now is the high time to carry out extension and renovation works as well as upgrade the facility,” he said.

According to Lee, he had recently received complaints from motorists passing through the Brunei and Miri borders at Sungai Tujuh that the queue at the checkpoint took one to two hours.

“We want to make it easier for visitors to come into Miri. We want to facilitate all our travellers and try our best not to make them wait too long at the border,” he said.

Lee disclosed that based on the briefing by the Immigration officers at the meeting there has been a big increase in the number of visitors entering from Sungai Tujuh to Miri, especially since December 12.

This followed a move by the Brunei government to do away with entry charges on per person to per vehicle.

“After receiving this feedback (on long queue) from our visitors and travellers passing through Sungai Tujuh, I’ve called up the director of Immigration personally on the matter, on how they can increase the number of counters so that they can clear the entry here much faster.

“The officers this morning (at the meeting) said they have opened up the maximum counters, which is 10 counters. Two for buses and eight for ordinary vehicles. The Customs Department also utilised their full counters capacity here.

“So by this week, there should be improvement on traffic flow,” he said.

Also present at the meeting were head of Customs and CDN Miri, Adriana Saaid; deputy Miri Immigration chief Mohammad Faiz Firdaus Mat; Miri district officer Rohanie Yusuf and acting head of Planning and Social Development Section, Miri Resident’s Office, Nora Shafia Muhiyuddin.