24-hour border at Coloane Pier for yachts

The government is to open a 24-hour border checkpoint at Coloane Pier, the Official Gazette announced yesterday, which may be seen as preparation for the ‘Free Yacht Travel Scheme’ between Macau and Zhonshang scheduled to be launched in July.
According to the announcement, the new round-the-clock checkpoint will only open for people who enter or leave the Special Administrative Region by yacht. The dispatch also indicates that the checkpoint will start its service from June 30.
Nevertheless, there is no exact date set yet for the launch of the free yacht travel scheme, the Director of the Marine and Water Bureau, Susana Wong Soi Man, said recently.
According to her, a total of 50 provisional yacht berths could be opened on the waterway in front of the Concordia Industrial Park, near Coloane Pier, during the middle of the year.
This also means that people planning to enter or depart via Colane in yachts will need to take feeder vessels to connect them between the provisional berths and the new border checkpoint.
Meanwhile, local broadcaster TDM Radio reported that the government will offer more berths on the waterway in front of Ocean Gardens in Taipa for the second stage of the new travel scheme, which will take the total number of berths for yachts available in Macau to 170.