36m took bridge for cross-border trips in five years since opening

About 36 million people, half of them from Hong Kong and Macau, have traveled by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge since it was opened five years ago.

The bridge marks its fifth anniversary today.

This year so far, over 11.548 million inbound and outbound passenger-trips have been recorded - an increase of six percent from the same period in 2019 - with over 60 percent being Hong Kong and Macau residents, the HZMB border inspection station revealed yesterday.

Over 2 million mainlanders in some 40,000 tour groups have also used the bridge to commute between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

Meanwhile, more than 700 billion yuan (HK$748 billion) of goods - both imports and exports - was handled by the Zhuhai port of the bridge over the five-year period up to this month, with the number of countries and regions increasing 1.3 times to 239 during the period.

As of October 19, the SAR received over 27,000 applications for the 'Northbound Travel for Hong Kong Vehicles' scheme which, launched in July, allows eligible Hong Kong private cars to travel between Hong Kong and Guangdong via the bridge.

Around 20,000 applications have been processed and approved.

Writing in his blog, Secretary for Transport and Logistics Lam Sai-hung was optimistic that the scheme, together with the park-and-ride facilities in Macau, could facilitate travel between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau and "realize the one-hour living circle in the Greater Bay Area."

Lam said an average of about 7,500 vehicles made use of the mega bridge per day in September and this was 1.8 times that before the pandemic, adding that the average number of people traveling by the bridge reached 57,000 a day that was close to the pre-pandemic level.

Election Committee constituency lawmaker Chan Pui-leung blamed the pandemic for the lower-than-expected figures.

According to official planning documents in 2008, traffics on the bridge were expected to reach between 15,350 and 22,300 vehicles a day in 2020 and increase further to between 27,400 to 38,800 vehicles by 2030.

Chan called on the government to increase the scheme quotas and simplify the application process to attract more motorists to travel via the bridge.

The lawmaker also proposed the bridge toll be lowered for private cars.

Private vehicle drivers are currently required to pay a one-way toll of 150 yuan (HK$ 160).