In a multi-agency briefing on 28 September, Hong Kong announced a suite of technology-driven measures—anchored by 800 automated e-Channels—to keep border traffic moving during the 1–7 October National Day holiday, when 6.31 million land-crossing passengers are forecast. A joint command centre staffed by Immigration, Police, Customs and MTR Corp will operate at Lo Wu to coordinate live data from CCTV analytics and AI-powered facial-recognition kiosks. The ImmD highlighted its ‘Seamless e-Channel’, now active at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which lets eligible residents clear departure formalities while walking without scanning ID cards. Temporary counters and vehicle kiosks will open at Lok Ma Chau Spur-Line and Shenzhen Bay. Front-line leave has been frozen to add roughly 900 officers across all control points. Travellers can monitor wait times via the ‘Easy Boundary’ dashboard, which aggregates feeds from RFID-tagged shuttle buses, pedestrian counters and licence-plate cameras. The digital push dovetails with Hong Kong’s broader ‘Smart Mobility Roadmap’, aiming to reduce average clearance times by 30 % by 2028. For global mobility teams, the upgrades mean that frequent travellers can pre-enrol for facial-ID clearance using the ‘Go Hong Kong’ smartphone app—useful for employees shuttling to Shenzhen factories. Authorities still caution that peak daily volumes could exceed 587,000 on 3–4 October; companies are advised to stagger travel and leverage the under-utilised Heung Yuen Wai/Liantang crossing for cargo vans and staff shuttles.
Source: OpenGov Asia
