JOHOR BARU: Immigration clearance at Johor’s two land checkpoints with Singapore returned to normal last night after the e-gate system was plagued by repeated technical disruptions.
It was fully restored at 11pm, easing passenger congestion and relieving pressure on overstretched border control officers.
State Works, Transportation, Infrastructure and Communications Committee chairman Fazli Salleh said the immigration clearance systems at both Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complexes — Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) and Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar — were showing smooth passenger flow.
“The automated electronic gates are operating as intended for both Malaysian and foreign passport holders, following days of intermittent failures that had forced travellers into long manual queues,” he told the New Straits Times.
CIQ BSI is among the world’s busiest land checkpoints, handling nearly half a million people and operating under extreme volume pressure, particularly during weekends, school holidays and festive periods.
The NST understands that stabilisation works on the immigration digital platform were completed after intensified technical interventions, including system recalibration, data verification fixes and closer real-time monitoring.
Previous disruptions had mainly affected foreign passport holders, triggering bottlenecks during peak hours and weekends, while immigration officers were redeployed to manual counters to prevent a complete standstill.
The NST had reported that the glitches were linked to data integration and verification issues within the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe), rather than hardware failure at the gates themselves.
LINK: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2026/01/1354037/updated-johor-official-denies-10000-stranded-ciq-cctv-shows-situation
Immigration officers said passenger movement since 11pm yesterday was “controlled and orderly”, with queues clearing steadily and average clearance times returning to pre-disruption levels.
The restoration comes amid heightened scrutiny of the e-gate system’s resilience at Johor’s land borders, which handle almost half of daily crossings.
The Causeway linking Singapore and Johor is critical to trade, tourism and workforce mobility between Malaysia and the republic.
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