The Immigration Department estimates that around 7.44 million travelers, including Hong Kong residents and visitors, will pass through sea, land and air control points of the special administrative region during the Chinese mainland's upcoming National Day Golden Week period, from Oct 1 to 7.
The interdepartmental working group on festival arrangements, led by the SAR’s chief secretary, released the estimates on Monday.
Following consultation with the "Shenzhen General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection" and other mainland authorities, the ImmD estimates that around 6.31 million passengers will pass through land boundary control points (BCPs).
Passenger traffic at the Lo Wu Control Point, the Lok Ma Chau Spur Line Control Point and the Shenzhen Bay Control Point will be heavy, with daily average forecasts of about 220,000, 190,000 and 150,000 passengers at the three points, respectively, according to the estimates.
The ImmD, the Hong Kong Police Force, the Customs and Excise Department and the MTR Corp Ltd will set up a joint command center at the Lo Wu Control Point to make necessary arrangements.
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The number of outbound and inbound passengers using land BCPs will be comparatively higher during the weekend, with around 587,000 passengers expected on Saturday and around 586,000 on Sunday.
To cope with the anticipated heavy traffic during outbound and inbound peak hours, the ImmD will open additional counters, temporary counters and vehicle clearance kiosks in advance at land BCPs to strengthen its immigration clearance services, the SAR government said in a notification.
Leaves have been minimized for frontline officers during the festive period for their flexible deployment to direct passenger and vehicular flows. Additional security guards will also be deployed to provide crowd management support, the notification added.
Advising all land boundary passengers to plan in advance, the ImmD encouraged residents and visitors to visit Easy Boundary – a one-stop information platform on immigration clearance launched by the Security Bureau – to get useful information in one go, including average waiting time for passengers and private cars at land BCPs, as well as waiting times for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge cross-boundary shuttle bus and the Lok Ma Chau-Huanggang cross-boundary shuttle bus.
