The Security Bureau today held an interdepartmental meeting to co-ordinate the management of passenger and vehicular flows at land boundary control points (BCPs) during the Mainland’s National Day Golden Week holiday.

To ensure smooth and orderly operation of the land BCPs during the holiday period, relevant departments will strengthen manpower, as well as co-ordination of transport and cross-boundary services, at these points. This will include strengthening crowd management and increasing transport frequency.

Relevant departments have minimised leave for frontline officers to enable the flexible deployment and operation of extra clearance counters and kiosks. Additional security guards will also be deployed at individual BCPs to provide crowd management support.

The Inter-departmental Joint Command Centre set up by customs, Police, the Immigration Department and other departments will be activated during the National Day Golden Week to facilitate monitoring of the situation at control points.

The relevant departments will also maintain close liaison with the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau, and Mainland counterparts. They will take timely contingency actions to flexibly deploy manpower at the BCPs and open more e-Channels and counters to ease passenger and vehicular flows where necessary.

The Transport Department’s Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre will operate round the clock to monitor traffic and public transport services in different districts, including at BCPs and major stations. It will disseminate the latest traffic information via various channels and implement response measures where appropriate.

Police will make appropriate traffic arrangements according to the circumstances. If necessary, this will include arranging for public transport to use the dedicated lane on San Sham Road to reach Lok Ma Chau/Huanggang Port.

The public and visitors can check the estimated waiting times at each land BCP via the Immigration Department’s mobile application in order to plan their itineraries. The daily arrival figures for each control point will be uploaded onto a designated web page.

Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung, who chaired the interdepartmental meeting, said relevant departments will maintain close liaison and co-ordinate with one another to properly manage passenger and vehicular flows, providing an orderly and smooth experience for the public and visitors to Hong Kong.

The bureau will activate its Emergency Monitoring & Support Centre in a timely manner to closely monitor and co-ordinate the public order situation at various BCPs and facilitate follow-up actions where necessary, he added.