JOHOR BARU: A 45-minute system glitch in the biometric scanning system at the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints left numerous Malaysians stranded during rush hour on Friday.
Many were left queuing for almost three hours as a result of the glitch.
Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), after detecting the glitch, issued three travel advisories on its Facebook page.
It advised travelers planning to exit the country via its two land check points to consider postponing any non-essential travel out from Singapore, due to heavy traffic.
The first travel advisory, posted around 5pm, cautioned travelers about to pass the checkpoints to check on traffic updates via the Singapore's Land Transport Authority website.
The second travel advisory, posted about an hour later, stated that traffic remains heavy at the two checkpoints exit. It said Singapore police had been deployed to aid with traffic flow.
Only in the third advisory, about an hour later, did the ICA clarify that a 45-minute glitch in its automated immigration clearance had caused intermittent slowness to the system operation.
It also said that the immigration clearance system was back to normal about 8.30pm.
Traffic flow appeared to have resumed normalcy at press time.