Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said yesterday that it is monitoring the detention of a vessel captained by a Singaporean in Indonesian waters, and is in contact with Indonesian authorities.

The Indonesian navy detained the boat for allegedly fishing in Indonesian waters without permission.

It was intercepted on Sunday night around the waters of Tanjung Berakit, off Bintan Island, according to detik.com news website.

The website named the Singaporean captain as Shoo Chian Huat, quoting a navy spokesman as saying.

The boat has three other crew members who are Indonesian, Commodore S. Irawan, a navy commander in Tanjung Pinang, told The Straits Times.

There were also 13 passengers on board – six Singaporeans and seven Malaysians.

“MFA is monitoring this matter closely and has been in close contact with the next-of-kin of the detained Singaporeans,” the ministry said.

“Our consulate in Batam is also in touch with the Indonesian authorities and will continue to render the necessary consular assistance to the Singaporeans,” it added.

Those detained are being held at the Tanjung Pinang naval base’s detention centre in Bintan.

Mr Irawan said the crew will be prosecuted because they were caught fishing without permit in Indonesian waters.

“During the interrogation, they gave inconsistent information. First, they said they were just passing by and were pushed by tides towards Indonesian waters.

Then, they said they were out for fishing,” he added.

The detik.com report said the boat was an Indonesian vessel.

Since 2014, Indonesia has sunk some 170 vessels caught poaching in Indonesian waters and impounded 700 others.

myp@sph.com.sg

Get MyPaper for more stories.

What happens to food that is still in good condition but is close to its expiry date? It is often wasted, which is why The Food Bank Singapore is setting up a shop where such items are sold for $1 each.

The non-profit organisation is launching The Food Pantry, a shop space that will sell consumable items, which have less than two months of shelf life, for that sum, regardless of brand or product type.

The store will start operating from Monday at Sims Avenue and will sell donated items such as canned foods, biscuits, beverages, sauces and confectioneries.

“You never know what you are getting as our donations are very varied,” Nichol Ng, co-founder of The Food Bank Singapore, told My Paper.

Plans to sell fresh fruit and vegetables that are unwanted as they are considered “ugly” – though they are perfectly edible – are in the works too.

“It’s a platform for us to raise awareness on food wastage reduction and change the way consumers shop,” said Mr Ng.

The store, which is comparable to the size of a provision shop at about 500 sq ft, is more thrift shop than supermarket, he added.

The outlet will also double as a drop-off point for those who wish to donate food.

Donors are encouraged to give packaged food that is unopened and with at least a week of shelf life.

Asked where the money from the transactions will go to, Mr Ng stressed that The Food Bank Singapore is not using this as a fundraiser.

“All money raised will be used to cover manpower, utilities, rental and other packaging expenses,” he said.

“If there should be ever any excess, it will go back to supporting our usual operations to manage donations.”

Established in 2012, The Food Bank collects, stores and distributes donated food to beneficiaries such as family service centres, homes, soup kitchens and other voluntary welfare organisations.

When contacted, a spokesman for the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said the safety of a food product is not dependent solely on its expiry date.

“Food products that are not properly stored or handled can be unsafe to consume even if their expiry dates have not passed,” she said.

“It is paramount that consumers check the food product for signs of spoilage such as odour or bulging packaging before consumption.”

She added that food products should not be consumed if there are any concerns about their safety.

For more information on good food safety practices, go to: www.ava.gov.sg.

lydialam@sph.com.sg

Get MyPaper for more stories.

A PANEL of electrical experts have made no fewer than 40 recommendations to make Singapore’s rail network more resilient.

Roped in four months ago, the panel of 13 experts – four of them from overseas – said these recommendations should be carried out as soon as possible to minimise power-related glitches – a major cause of rail breakdowns here.

The urgent recommendations include more frequent inspections of assets and replacement of components, the Land Transport Authority said yesterday.

The panel also called for new monitoring technologies, and tighter control on manufacturers and contractors at the design and building stages.

For instance, the panel said the third rail of the North-South and East-West lines should be inspected every six months until it is replaced.

It added that components which are critical to operations should be replaced within five years of reaching the end of their lifespans.

The panel also recommended certain components, like switches and circuit breakers, be replaced with more reliable models.

It suggested exercises be conducted to test operational response measures, in case there is a repeat of previous power-related incidents – like the one on July 7 last year that paralysed the entire North-South and East-West lines.

For future MRT lines, the panel said measures must be in place “to ensure tighter specification and quality control on the contractors and manufacturers”.

It cited the Circle Line’s power cables, which failed within the first few months of operation.

The panel also recommended the use of new technologies, such as an intelligent fault identification system (iFIS) to pinpoint exact location.

It also called for “extensive usage of energy storage to ride through voltage dips”.

It added that online real-time thermal imaging equipment should be installed in substations to detect heat build-up in key components.

In recent months, circuit breakers had caught fire at an MRT station and the Bukit Panjang LRT line.

LTA said it would adopt all the urgent recommendations, adding that some are already in place in newer lines.

For instance, the Downtown and Thomson-East Coast lines were designed with iFIS, as well as devices which isolate power trips so that they do not affect an entire line.

Others, such as more frequent inspection of key components and timely asset replacement, were among recommendations listed by the 2012 Committee of Inquiry.

For the longer term, the panel called for a power system design that will have a downtime of not more than five minutes and, with which, full recovery can be obtained within 20 minutes.

christan@sph.com.sg

Get MyPaper for more stories.

TRAVELLERS arriving at Changi Airport may now face a longer wait than before to collect their bags.

The airport’s “first bag on the belt in 12 minutes” standard was relaxed recently to allow a couple more minutes, sources said.

This is after feedback from industry players, including ground handling firms which handle passengers, bags and cargo.

Growing passenger numbers and rising manpower costs have made meeting the old standards increasingly challenging, they said.

Last year, Changi Airport handled a record 55.4 million passengers. Traffic is expected to grow in coming years as the demand for air travel in the Asia Pacific rises.

As part of the changes – the first in seven years – those using budget carriers are also likely to queue longer at check-in counters compared with those on full-service airlines.

This is because there are now different standards for the different types of airlines.

It is understood that this is due partly to different traveller expectations and pressures on budget airlines to keep a tight lid on costs to offer competitive fares.

Previously, the rules were the same for all airlines. No traveller should wait more than 10 minutes to get to the front of the line and another two minutes to be processed.

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) confirmed that performance standards had been revised, taking into account passenger growth and changes in the operating environment.

The authority did not provide details on the new standards.

The spokesman stressed, though, that the priority is always to maintain high standards of service.

The head of Dnata’s Singapore operations, Mark Edwards, said it will take time to assess the impact of the recent changes.

The 40-year industry veteran, who has worked at airports in London and Munich in Germany, said Changi’s standards are the highest he has come across.

“Changi is 100 per cent focused on the customer experience and, as a passenger, I appreciate that going in and out of Singapore is a fairly easy and pleasant experience.

“But the pressure and problems it causes us are extraordinary and we struggle with it all the time,” he said.

The move towards do-it-yourself options should help, he added.

He was referring to the airport’s initiative to cut manpower costs and boost efficiency by rolling out self-service options for check-in, baggage tagging and aircraft boarding.

Housewife Paremjit Sandhu, 49, said: “Flying in and out of Changi is quite pleasant. Even when there are queues, you don’t end up waiting for too long and everything is very efficient.

“I have no doubt that the airport will maintain the highest standards even as traffic numbers increase.”

karam@sph.com.sg

Get MyPaper for more stories.

THE management of the new Waterway Point shopping mall in Punggol has promised that there would be no repeat of a rat incident there, saying it is working “very closely” with the National Environment Agency (NEA).

In March, a diner had complained on Facebook that a rat fell from the ceiling above her while she was waiting for her meal at The Coffee House eatery. It was the first report of a rat sighting at the mall that the NEA received since it opened in January.

That incident was an “embarrassing moment”, said Christopher Tang, chief executive officer of Frasers Centrepoint, one of the mall’s developers, yesterday at the mall’s official opening.

“An incident like that, obviously we are not happy about it,” he added.

“We are a professional mall manager. We have a professional pest control (company) working on programmes to make sure that it will never happen again.”

Home to more than 200 tenants including Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo and London Fat Duck eatery, the mall has attracted more than six million shoppers in the first three months this year.

Nestled in a new estate with many young families, Waterway Point features an Alice in Wonderland themed indoor playground. Children can also cool off at the water fountain play area called The Cove in the basement.

The area also includes an amphitheatre where community events can be held.

Come next year, a wet and dry outdoor playground Happy Park overlooking the waters will be opened.

kchitra@sph.com.sg

Get MyPaper for more stories.