Central Districts Community Service Consultative Council member Tou Mio Leng urged the local government to discuss with its Zhuhai counterpart the resumption of a passenger ferry service between the peninsula’s Inner Harbour and Wanzai in Zhuhai.
According to The Macau Post Daily, Zhuhai’s Wanzai border check-point was officially classified as a dangerous building in January last year and therefore the long-running passenger ferry service between the Inner Harbour Ferry Terminal and the Wanzai checkpoint was suspended sine die.
Pointing out that the ferry service has been suspended for more than a year, Tou noted that still no announcement has been made as to when the Wanzai checkpoint will be rebuilt and when the ferry service will be restarted.
Tou said that all those who used to regularly use the ferry service, nowadays needed to go to the Barrier Gate checkpoint or Lotus Flower Bridge checkpoint, which takes much more time to commute between Macau and Wanzai.
Tou also said that the suspension of the ferry service has also adversely affected the business sector around the Inner Harbour Ferry Terminal, which is close to Praca de Ponte e Horta.
Tou, a civic leader and member of the Macau General Union of Neighbourhood Associations (Kai Fong), said the resumption of the ferry service between the Inner Harbour and Wanzai would help reduce the big crowds at the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
Several local members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), during the annual plenary session in Beijing in March, called for the Wanzai checkpoint to be renovated or rebuilt so that the ferry service can be resumed.
According to previous news reports, an average of up to 3,000 people used the Wanzai checkpoint daily in recent years before last year’s suspension of the ferry service.
Currently, an average of more than 300,000 people uses the Barrier Gate checkpoint daily.
