Briefs | PJ cracks down on fraudulent mobile base station

A fraudulent mobile base station which was sending out messages to people near the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge’s Macau entrance, has been uncovered by the Judiciary Police (PJ). Three local male residents, aged 19, 20 and 21, have been arrested. In total, four different operational sites were cracked down on and 15 sets of equipment were seized. The group is believed to have been operating for a minimum of five months. Two suspects claimed they were paid RMB10,000 and RMB12,000 for the job.  The PJ is still looking for the mastermind.

Transport, storage sector records MOP22.3 billion revenue in 2017

Macau’s transport and storage sector revenue grew by 11.7 percent year-on-year to MOP22.33 billion (approx. USD2.77 billion) in 2017, the SAR’s statistics service said on Saturday. The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) showed that the increase was mainly generated by passenger transport (MOP9.58 billion) and services rendered (MOP8.15 billion), up by 7.9 percent and 20.3 percent respectively. The number of establishments in the sector increased by 101 year-on-year to 3,054. The number of persons engaged went up by 9.7 percent to 19,489, while those in land transport and auxiliary transport activities rose by 19.1 percent to 8,120 and 6.1 percent to 7,957 respectively.

HK-Macau shuttle bus adult fare set at HKD65 and HKD70

The adult fare for the Hong Kong-Macau bus route across the soon-to-be inaugurated Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is to be HKD65 during daytime and HKD70 during nighttime. Half-fare concessions are offered to children, and disabled and elderly passengers, according to Hong Kong’s deputy commissioner for Transport.  The shuttle bus will be the key transport mode linking the three ports, Hong Kong-Zhuhai and Hong Kong-Macau. It operates 24 hours daily and passengers can buy tickets in the departure hall or through its website in advance. The facilities offering boundary crossing services for passengers and vehicles travelling between Macau and Hong Kong will be open 24 hours a day once the bridge is open. The headway will be maintained at an interval of less than five minutes during peak hours, 15 minutes during off-peak hours and 15 to 30 minutes at night (midnight to 6 a.m.).  The Macau government will introduce two new bus routes once the bridge is launched.  Route 101X links the HKZMB Macau port to Macau Peninsula, and 102X links the HKZMB Macau port to Taipa.  Route 101X will be available 24 hours a day, and the headway will be maintained at an interval of eight to 30 minutes. Route 102X will be available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the headway will be maintained at an interval of 12 to 20 minutes.

Kiang Wu stops receiving phone call appointments 

Starting from November, the Kiang Wu Hospital will no longer accept appointments made by phone call, the hospital announced. At the beginning of the year, Kiang Wu started an online appointment service. The hospital said that this service received positive feedback from the public and that it has also helped to reduce the number of appointments made by telephone. The online service further solved the longstanding problem in the hospital regarding appointment difficulties. After canceling phone call appointments, Kiang Wu will arrange for specific helpers at the hospital to instruct the public on how to make an online appointment.

Second batch of special taxis starts operations in Q3

A second batch of 100 special taxis will be put into operation, at the earliest, in the third quarter of 2019, the Transport Bureau (DSAT) announced last week. The DSAT also announced the results of the tender for the operation of 200 radio taxis. In total, five companies submitted their tenders to the DSAT in order to obtain a license. All these vehicles, which are required to be electric, will start their service by 2020. The DSAT will consider whether more special taxis are needed based on market demand.