SINGAPORE – Singapore’s 24th HDB town, Tengah, will be a “forest town” – integrated with the surrounding greenery and biodiversity.
A major attraction is an approximately 100m-wide and 5km-long forest corridor that will be planted with rainforest tree species “to transform it into a rich forest habitat”. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) said that amenities such as hiking trails would be incorporated into the corridor.
The corridor will be part of a larger network of greenery connecting the Western Water Catchment Area and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, HDB said.
The masterplan for Tengah, in the west of Singapore, was unveiled by Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong at the HDB Awards Ceremony today (Sept 8).
Tengah will also have a car-free town centre. This is accomplished by having “vehicles plying underneath the town centre”, HDB said in a statement.
Tengah is bounded by the Pan-Island Expressway, Kranji Expressway, Brickland Road and Bukit Batok Road.
The town will have five housing districts – Plantation, Garden, Park, Brickland and Forest Hill – “designed with community and nature in mind”. There will be a large central park, about 20 hectares or the size of Ang Mo Kio’s Town Garden West, filled with “ponds and canals”.
The Jurong Innovation District, called “Singapore’s next-generation industrial district housing learning, research, innovation and manufacturing activities” by the HDB, will be next to Tengah.
The first batch of flats in Tengah will be launched from 2018 onwards in the Plantation District.
When completed, Tengah is estimated provide 42,000 new homes – 30,000 public housing and 12,000 private housing units.
HDB also said that the roads in Tengah are “designed to meet future needs” and “they could support future forms of mobility” like driverless vehicles.
A public exhibition on the key planning concepts for Tengah will be held from Sept 9 to 25 at HDB Hub in Toa Payoh, it will be open from 9am to 8pm daily.
HDB
sinsh@sph.com.sg
