MACAO, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Fifty-two newly built passenger inspection channels at Hengqin Port were fully put into trial operation on Wednesday to cope with rising cross-border passenger flows between south China's Hengqin and Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), and improve clearance efficiency and service capacity of the port.
With the new channels in service, the total number of passenger entry-exit inspection channels in the passenger clearance hall has reached 113, including 94 automated channels and 19 manual channels. Passenger throughput efficiency is expected to rise by 65 percent during peak hours, better accommodating surging cross-border clearance demand.
Hengqin, located in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, is separated from Macao by a narrow stretch of water.
Driven by accelerated Hengqin-Macao integration, coupled with the delivery of facilitation policies, passenger flows through Hengqin Port have been climbing.
Official statistics showed that since the passenger clearance hall of the new Hengqin Port opened on Aug. 18, 2020, it has processed more than 110 million entry-exit passenger trips, representing an average annual growth rate of 37.5 percent.
Since the beginning of this year, Hengqin Port has registered nearly 100,000 daily passenger arrivals and departures, a year-on-year increase of over 26 percent. Macao residents account for nearly 30 percent of the total throughput, reflecting increasingly frequent people-to-people exchanges between Hengqin and Macao. ■
