SINGAPORE: The daily passenger quota under the land vaccinated travel lane (VTL) between Singapore and Malaysia will be increased from Monday (Mar 14), both countries announced on Thursday.
The daily quota each way will rise from 2,160 to 3,420 – the equivalent of 76 bus trips. Sales for the additional bus tickets will start on Friday.
"We are progressively expanding the VTL with Malaysia via our land borders, to allow more travellers to travel across the borders," said a spokesperson for Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI).
“This would allow even more fully vaccinated people to travel across the Causeway without being subject to quarantine and other related requirements,” said Malaysia’s transport ministry.
Malaysia’s designated bus operator will continue to operate the VTL by land to Singapore from the Larkin Terminal in Johor Bahru, it added.
Earlier this week, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that the country would fully reopen its borders on Apr 1 as it begins to transition to a COVID-19 endemic phase.
Travellers who are fully vaccinated will not need to undergo quarantine. They will only need to do a COVID-19 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test two days before departure and a professional COVID-19 rapid test kit-antigen (RTK-Ag) test within 24 hours after arrival in Malaysia.
Singapore’s MTI said on Tuesday that it is working with its Malaysian counterparts to expand the land VTL to allow vaccinated travellers to cross the border via other transport routes.
In an effort to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, Singapore froze all new VTL ticket sales between Dec 23 and Jan 20, and reduced the quotas after Jan 20. The quota for VTL (Land) was fully restored on Feb 22.
Artmotion Asia
