XN000022-1995-04-26 — Page 37

24

-

More optical readers to be installed

Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Regarding the installation of optical readers at the LoWu and Airport immigration control points, will the Administration inform this Council:-

(a)

of the respective average processing times for each traveller before and after the installation of the optical readers;

(b)

of the respective numbers of passengers that can be processed each hour in a normal situation and during peak hours; and

(c)

whether optical readers will be installed at the HK - Macau and HK - China ferry immigration control points in the near future?

Reply:

Mr President,

(a)

At Lo Wu, the average processing time for a Hong Kong Identity Card holder is 20 seconds at present. Before the installation of optical readers the average processing time was 24 seconds i.e. there is a reduction of the processing time by 4 seconds.

At the Airport, the average processing times for arrival and departure clearances are different. For a Hong Kong Identity Card holder, the average for arrival clearance is 30 seconds at present, compared with 34 seconds before the installation of optical readers. That for departure clearance is 39 seconds, compared with 43 seconds before.

At

We plan to install more optical readers to facilitate clearance. present. 350 optical readers have been installed for clearance of Hong Kong Identity Card holders only. An additional 270 optical readers will be installed in September this year at the control points for handling machine readable passports as well. We estimate that using the optical readers, the current average processing time for machine readable passports of 90 seconds for arrivals and 60 seconds for departures will be reduced by 20 seconds for each machine readable passport holder.