Driving to Sentosa will be a breeze when a new cashless payment system kicks in from July .

The existing gantry booths at the entrance to the island at Sentosa Gateway will also be relocated and shifted further in to ease congestion near the Telok Blangah junction.

Admissions to the island from next Tuesday will be processed at new gantry booths which have been set up about 400m after the vehicular bridge, said a statement from Sentosa Leisure Group on Thursday, announcing the changes.

After drivers cross the Sentosa bridge, they will coast along on a two-lane road which will fan out into seven lanes to expedite entry. Six lanes will be operational from July 1. A seventh lane will open next year.

The new gantry booths will continue to be manned by Sentosa's Admission Hosts.

To facilitate entry, drive-in guests will pay for their island admission and vehicle charges via the CashCard inserted in their in-vehicle unit. Deduction for Malaysian registered vehicles will be done using the Autopass.

The admission rates which are $2 per person and $2 per vehicle remain unchanged for now.

To keep the traffic flow smooth, Sentosa is calling on all guests who drive in to ensure they have sufficient value in their cash cards.

The cashless admission system is part of Sentosa's long-term traffic management plan.

Explained Mr Low Tien Sio, Executive Director of Special Projects, 'We are bolstering the island infrastructure for a much bigger capacity, and going electronic will help bring about faster through-put at admissions, and hence keep the traffic flowing smoothly.'

The new electronic system will cut the average processing time from the current 1 minute to 10 seconds, said Sentosa.

An average of 1,000 passenger vehicles carrying leisure guests pass through admissions on weekdays, and the number goes up to about 3,000 vehicles on weekends.