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Raymond Ma

Stella Lee

The Lowu border crossing may soon open 30 minutes longer until midnight every day, Director of Immigration Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said last night.

After a border inspection, Mr Lee said: 'In the short term, we hope to be able to extend hours on Saturdays and Sundays to midnight and if possible on weekdays, too. This is still under discussion by different departments.'

Wang Xinhua, director of the Shenzhen Office of Port and Harbour, also said yesterday plans were being drawn up to lengthen opening times.

At present, Lowu opens from 6.30am to 11.30pm on weekdays. On public holidays the hours are extended to midnight. Mr Wang said Shenzhen was considering extending that to weekends.

The hours at the border checkpoint in Huanggong would also be extended from 10pm to midnight. Mr Wang said if that proved successful, authorities would further extend opening hours on weekdays to midnight.

'We have to think about it. We have to employ enough hands, reorganise our border working force and sort out shifts before we can take the next step,' Mr Wang said.

Mr Lee said the mainland and SAR governments were still discussing whether the border could open round the clock.

Deputy director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Chen Zuo'er, who also inspected the Lowu border yesterday, said on Tuesday that opening hours had to be extended as it was the wish of Hong Kong and Shenzhen people.

A spokeswoman for the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCRC) said train services would be adjusted if the border opened until midnight. However, she said the KCRC could not provide round-the-clock services on a daily basis because of maintenance considerations. 'Occasionally we can provide 24-hour services. But on a daily bases that is impossible. We are already pushed to our limits because we need at least five hours for maintenance work.'

Immigration staff associations urged the Government to hire sufficient officers if border hours were extended.

Chairman of the Hong Kong Immigration Department Staff Association Wong Tang-sing said: 'The existing manpower is already insufficient to cover the rising workload.'

Both Mr Wong and the chairman of the Immigration Service Officers' Association, Chiu See-wai, said frontline officers were already unhappy about a recent proposal to cut meal times by shortening their daily shift.

They said they feared officers would be less efficient, fail to concentrate and make mistakes if they were overworked.

Meanwhile, the Immigration Department estimated 170,000 people would return to Hong Kong through Lowu today, the Chung Yeung holiday. Yesterday, about 162,000 people crossed the border to the mainland.

Opening hours at Lowu were extended to midnight yesterday.



Support grows for midnight extension to Lowu hours