SINGAPORE: Train commuters affected by the recent early closures and late openings of the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL), will experience more of such instances this year.

At the Committee of Supply debates in Parliament on Wednesday (Mar 7), Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan announced that extended engineering hours will continue beyond June this year, in order to speed up maintenance works.

To support upcoming rail renewal works and changes in operation hours, more buses will be deployed along affected MRT routes.

“To accelerate the renewal of the ageing assets, we will reinforce our bus network to provide some back-up capacity,” said Mr Khaw. “We will be deploying 450 buses to bolster capacity along existing bus routes which support critical stretches of the rail network undergoing renewal.”

He added: “These buses were planned to meet growing ridership demand and to replace our ageing bus fleet.

“We are bringing forward their deployment to strengthen the resilience of our public transport network in the interim.”

PREVIOUS ANNOUNCEMENTS

In January, it was announced that all 35 stations along the East-West Line will have shorter operating times in March to free up more hours for maintenance and repair works.

Rail operating times were first shortened last December, where sections of the North-South Line and East-West Line were fully shut on two Sundays. That was followed by the full closure of 10 stations on two days in January.

Two weekdays during the upcoming week-long March school holidays – Mar 12 and Mar 14 – will see the entire line shut down at 10.30pm.

MAINTENANCE WORKS UPDATE

The additional engineering hours has led to SMRT doubling its progress of preventive maintenance and repairs, Mr Khaw said.

“Extended engineering hours have been very useful to our engineering team. They allow us to speed up the renewal of ageing assets, as well as the installation of noise barriers around the island,” he said. “For residents living next to MRT tracks, this is a welcome development.”

He added: “Extended engineering hours have also allowed us to step up preventive maintenance and repairs.”

The overhaul of the 100km NSEWL network is expected to be completed by early 2020.

With the extended hours, the sleeper and power rail replacements have completed, together with re-signalling works for the North-South Line.

Power supply system works and track circuit system replacement works are ongoing, while 66 first-generation NSEWL trains are slated to be replaced.

A RELIABLE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM

Explaining the reasons behind major upgrades to land transport in the coming years, Mr Khaw said that the eventual aim is to make public transport the preferred choice – by making it extensive, affordable, reliable and seamless.

“Our approach is to make public transport the preferred mode of transport within Singapore. This is work in progress,” he said. “There will be growing pains, but I am confident we will get there.

“Our target is to have 75 per cent of all peak-hour journeys made on public transport by 2030,” added Mr Khaw. “We are on track to achieve this target.”

SINGAPORE: The Municipal Services Office (MSO) will be able to tap into a new S$3.6 million fund to help with small-scale infrastructure projects over the next two years, announced Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu on Tuesday (Mar 6).

The scheme comes on top of other funding options such as the Land Transport Authority’s Walk2Ride scheme, which provides sheltered connectivity to transport nodes and the National Development Ministry’s Estate Upgrading Programme.

“Funding gaps for small-scale infrastructure at the local level do exist from time to time,” said Ms Fu, who also oversees the MSO, during the Ministry of National Development’s committee of supply debate.

MSO piloted a small funding scheme in 2014 to plug this gap.

About 140 infrastructure requests were received for the pilot fund and resulted in “small-scale but nevertheless important requests that make a positive difference to residents’ daily living” such as handrails on a footbridge across Geylang River, and lighting along a footpath near Punggol Point LRT station.

The pilot has shown that there is a need for sustained funding for such small-scale local infrastructure. “Residents have also benefited from such infrastructure which improves connectivity, as well as enhances accessibility, safety and security,” it said.

Besides the LIP, MSO has also worked with partner agencies to develop escalation mechanisms so that conflicting demands or constraints among the agencies do not result in undue delays in the planning, development and maintenance of connectivity-related infrastructure, Ms Fu said.

“This will help to bridge the gap, and support our agencies in meeting local infrastructure needs of residents more responsively,” Ms Fu said.

ONE SERVICE AS “ONE-STOP” COMMUNITY PLATFORM

In the coming year, besides providing feedback and accessing information, residents will also be able to use MSO’s OneService (OS) to perform transactions, participate in community events and give their feedback and comments on local improvement programmes, Ms Fu said.

“In the long term, we hope to make the OS channels a one-stop platform to address their municipal needs comprehensively,” she said. 

In 2017, the number of registered users grew by 43 per cent to 114,000, and number of cases submitted doubled to 153,000.

When the OS App was introduced in 2015, it had six reporting categories and allowed residents to report municipal issues to government agencies. Now, there are eleven categories, covering not just municipal issues under the purview of government agencies, but also those of town councils (TCs) and even private entities. 

For example, the “Facilities in HDB Estates” and “Shared Bicycles” categories introduced last year allow residents to report municipal issues in HDB estates to the TCs, and indiscriminately parked “Shared Bicycles” to bike operators. 

This makes it more convenient for residents to report on issues they encounter, and also enable government agencies and TCs collect data more systematically to guide future planning and operations through studying trends and analysing hotspots, Ms Fu said.

Going forward, MSO will also incorporate data collected from relevant elements of the Smart Nation infrastructure such as sensors to further enhance analysis of problem areas and move upstream to better anticipate the needs of residents. 

IMPROVEMENT IN RESOLUTION OF CASES

Ms Fu said there has been a marked improvement in the time taken to resolve feedback involving multiple parties.

It now takes 11 working days to resolve 90 per cent of such cases compared to 16 working days at end-2015, Ms Fu said.

This is due to the various initiatives undertaken by MSO to improve coordination, such as appointing lead agencies to settle municipal issues regardless of land ownership.

One such example was how NParks and HDB worked together on to a request for a staircase connecting Clementi Avenue 6 and Ulu Pandan Park Connector.

“It seemed like a simple request but there were complications. The area was earmarked for future public housing development and hence the staircase has to be planned with future developments in mind,” Ms Fu said.

NParks dealt with the presence of high tension cables underground by using light-weight precast slabs to minimise deep excavation works. A ramp was also added at the side of the staircase for cyclists to access the Park Connector. 

“GREY AREAS” IN MUNICIPAL ISSUES

While agencies are working together more, there remain municipal issues falling in grey areas where MSO can play a role to help, Ms Fu said.

She said that inter-agency processes which are not apparent to the public have been at play when it comes to cases like pigeon-related nuisances, animal hoarding, and the management of outdoor display areas. 

Pigeon-related nuisance cases, for example, involve town councils that oversee the cleaning of common areas, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, which takes enforcement action against pigeon feeders, the National Environment Agency, which takes enforcement action in instances where there is high-rise littering, and Residents’ Committees of the People’s Association, which is often roped in to counsel the feeders. 

To support their efforts, MSO has helped to formulate end-to-end workflows to clarify roles and responsibilities, and tighten coordination in their handling of pigeon problems.

MSO is also working towards improving processes at the planning stage. “Good planning and design makes our municipal infrastructure cheaper to upkeep in the long run,” Ms Fu said.

For a start, MSO and NEA are working with infrastructure agencies, in consultation with the town councils to establish design specifications and guidelines that will facilitate cleaning operations. The guidelines on the design of new public infrastructure will make them easier to clean and support mechanisation efforts by cleaning contractors.

Separately, the MSO said it has worked with several government agencies to identify design features and develop design guidelines to facilitate the cleaning and landscape maintenance of public infrastructure. 

These guidelines would be incorporated into Building Construction Authority’s Design for Maintainability Checklist. This includes design features that would help prevent the accumulation of litter in public infrastructure, as well as facilitate greater mechanisation in cleaning operations.

SINGAPORE: Some building owners will soon be legally required to appoint trained personnel to inspect building facades to ensure that they are well-maintained, announced Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee on Tuesday (Mar 6). 

Speaking in Parliament during his ministry’s committee of supply debate, Mr Lee said that the regime change will focus on buildings taller than 13 metres, and older than 20 years as they “pose higher risks”.

The inspections must be carried out once every seven years, with the expected lifespan of common facade materials and facade deterioration in mind. 

They would allow for detection of facade deterioration to facilitate timely repairs, Mr Lee said.

The inspection regime is aligned with the typical length of Repair and Redecoration (R&R) cycles for HDB estates and the majority of condominium developments, he said. 

The requirement comes on top of the Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) existing inspections which looks at the structural design of facades such as curtain wall and external cladding under the Building Control Act, as well as the maintenance of building exteriors under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act. 

Under the legislative changes which will be finalised by year end, BCA will also introduce inspection guidelines and strengthen its R&D efforts to look into more effective and productive ways to carry out facade inspections. 

“Building owners will be given about one year’s lead time to prepare, before the requirement comes into effect. BCA will continue to engage stakeholders on implementation details, to minimise cost burden,” he said. 

SINGAPORE: From May, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will allow young couples applying for their flats to defer their assessment of income for housing loans and grants to just before they collect their keys, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Tuesday (Mar 6).

This is designed to help them save some time in buying a new flat.

Speaking in Parliament during his ministry’s committee of supply debate, he noted that buying a flat is a serious commitment. But in the case of young couples who have “considered it carefully”, he said the Government can “exercise some flexibility to support them in their marriage and parenthood journey.”

Giving more details of the announcement in a joint press release, the Ministry of National Development (MND) and HDB explained that currently, first-timer couples buying a new flat have to be continuously employed for 12 months before their flat application if they wish to apply for grants such as the Additional CPF Housing Grant (AHG) and Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG).

They also need to remain employed at the time of their flat application, and those who intend to take up an HDB housing loan must have a valid HDB Loan Eligibility letter when they book a flat, MND and HDB said.

However, from the May 2018 Build-to-Order and Sale of Balance Flats exercise, first-timer couples who are full-time students or National Servicemen (NSF), or have recently completed their studies or NS will be able to qualify for this deferment.

HDB and MND said the deferment of income assessment will reduce the time required for them to secure a new flat by at least a year. More details will be announced at a later date, they said.

EASIER ACCESS TO FLATS

Mr Wong added that 3,000 flats with shorter waiting times of two to three years will be launched. Of these, 1,100 will be launched for sale in the second half of 2018 in three projects in Sembawang, Sengkang and Yishun. Another 2,000 will be offered in 2019. 

Under the Re-Offer of Balance Flats (ROF) scheme launched last year which puts up unsold flats, more than 90 per cent of ROF flats on offer were snatched up, Mr Wong said. 

Mr Wong also gave an update on the balloting process for flats and said that HDB is reviewing the process to make it simpler and faster. 

Previously, applicants need only attend a ballot ceremony for their flat allocation but this was only possible because the number of flats and applicants were smaller, said Mr Wong. 

Today, it takes more than six weeks to work through the entire balloting process because of checks that HDB has to conduct such as the applicant’s eligibility, schemes and quotas and that the ballot is fair, he added. 

“Still, I think the time taken can be significantly reduced. Challenged the HDB team to see if they can halve the balloting time to three weeks. HDB has taken on this challenge — working through processes and hope that they will be able to announce some good news before too long,” Mr Wong said. 

SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will remove its three-year time-bar policy for divorcees to buy subsidised flats, National Development Minister Lawrence Wong announced in Parliament on Tuesday (Mar 6).

Speaking during his ministry’s Committee of Supply debate, Mr Wong noted that some MPs have asked if the Government can help divorcees make a smoother housing transition, for the benefit of their children. 

The Government is also mindful, he said, that there is a “diverse range of home-buyers”, including second-timers, singles, divorcees and single unmarried parents.

In a joint press release giving more details of the change, the Ministry of National Development (MND) and HDB explained that currently, only one party of a divorced couple can buy or own a subsidised flat within three years from the date of their divorce.

But with effect from Tuesday (Mar 6), both parties in the divorce would be able to buy or own a subsidised flat each upon divorce, as long as they are each able to meet the eligibility conditions for flat purchase.

In his speech, Mr Wong outlined the various ways HDB has provided advice to families on their post-divorce housing options, to make their housing transition smoother.

For example, the ASSIST scheme gives them priority when applying for a 2- or 3-room Build-to-Order (BTO) flat in non-mature estates.  HDB also offers rental housing to those in need, including those who need help to tide over a protracted or acrimonious divorce, he said.

But he noted that the time bar rule is one issue divorcees may face.

“We hope that this will help divorced persons provide a more conducive living environment for their children, and go some way to help families through an already difficult period of transition,” he said.