Thanking those involved, he said the congestion was a huge problem for workers from Malaysia who had to wake up at 4am to make the busiest international land border crossing in the world with more than 350,000 travellers a day.
“Singapore requires Woodlands, which is presently under Malaysian authority. We can facilitate the sale, so Singapore can ease the flow of Malaysian workers to Singapore, and similarly Singaporeans coming into Johor, particularly during weekends,” he said during a joint press conference with his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong.
Meanwhile, Lee said Singapore had introduced various initiatives to make cross-border travel smoother and more efficient, while maintaining border security.
“We have also started to redevelop Woodlands to increase its capacity and meet the expected long-term growth in cross-border commuters.
“I am glad that Mr Anwar welcomes and supports Singapore’s efforts,” he said.
According to a joint statement, transport agencies from both countries also made progress in increasing the frequency of cross-border bus services and introducing new ferry services.
The Singapore immigration and checkpoints authority (ICA) projected that the traffic volume at Woodlands would increase by close to 40% by 2050.
This means a daily average of about 400,000 travellers, compared to pre-pandemic levels of about 300,000 travellers in 2019.
On another related matter, both Anwar and Lee welcomed the good progress made in the construction of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link.
The RTS Link will connect Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru and Woodlands North in Singapore with a peak capacity of 10,000 passengers an hour in each direction, which will help alleviate congestion along the Causeway and further strengthen connectivity between Malaysia and Singapore.
Both leaders expressed confidence in the link opening in 2026 and looked forward to attending the ceremony in early 2024 to commemorate the historic completion of the drop-in span, which will connect both sides of the marine viaduct.