MANAMA: The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is calling on Saudi border authorities to increase the work hours of customs checkpoints on the King Fahd Causeway to facilitate the movement of cargo trucks.
This was one of the key recommendations made to a joint meeting of border, customs, traffic and immigration authorities in the two countries held here recently.
"The customs authorities on the causeway have had to deal with an increased growth in transit traffic in recent times. If Saudi border authorities extended their working hours till 8 p.m., then that would certainly clear shipments and create more space for other vehicles," said Abdulhakim Al-Shammary, chairman of a joint committee at the Bahrain Customs Directorate.
Al-Shammary said about 550,000 trucks used the causeway by last year. "We expect by 2012 the number of trucks traveling through this border point to reach one million," he added.
The snail-pace movement of trucks at the border and the subsequent delays in shipment were raised at the meeting.
Al-Shammary, who is also a BCCI board member, said one effective measure would be to allow empty trucks to enter the Kingdom around the clock instead of stopping their movement after the evening prayers.
Bahraini businessmen have previously requested Saudi authorities to construct new 24-hour lanes for use exclusively by trucks. The calls followed reports of regular traffic jams at the causeway which is blamed on fixed timings for trucks to allowed to ply. During weekends, traffic comes to a virtual standstill and trucks have to wait several hours before they are allowed entry.
An average 20,000 people use the causeway everyday. The Bahrain-Qatar causeway will increase the numbers once it becomes operational. Eighty percent of travelers at the King Fahd Causeway are Saudis and Bahrainis, and the rest are non-Gulf Arabs, Asians and Europeans.
© Arab News 2009
