Speech by Minister Lawrence Wong at the Launch of Remaking Our Heartland Exhibition for Woodlands
Apr 16, 2017
I am very happy to join all of you today to launch the Remaking Our Heartland exhibition for Woodlands.
In Singapore, the Government not only builds HDB flats, but we ensure a quality home and living environment for everyone. We invest significant amounts in upgrading programmes - billions of dollars - and all of us know the upgrading programmes by their three-letter acronyms. There’s LUP for lifts, HIP for homes, NRP for neighbourhood precincts and then there is ROH or Remaking Our Heartland for the entire town.
This is our third batch of ROH. We started this programme 10 years ago. Since then, six HDB towns have been rejuvenated. Punggol, Dawson and Yishun were in our 1st batch, and East Coast, Hougang and Jurong Lake were in the 2nd batch. All of these programmes have made a visible difference and created meaningful impact on the ground. You don’t just have to take it from us because the feedback comes from the residents themselves. One of them is Mr Tan Keng Hai, who wrote to the Straits Times recently. He is a resident who has lived in Bedok for the last 33 years and he has seen the recent changes made to Bedok Town Centre because of the ROH programme. I quote him: “The rejuvenation of Bedok (should be) lauded. Bedok Town Centre has been transformed into a beautiful and pleasant living environment…Credit must go to all those people who planned and executed these projects”.
Such feedback encourages and motivates our HDB team to work even harder. I assure you they are already working very hard, but when they receive these feedback, they are motivated to work even harder and that’s what we will do for this new batch of ROH towns – Woodlands, Toa Payoh and Pasir Ris. This time round we have started the process earlier by seeking residents’ views way back in 2015. We carried out Focus Group Discussions and we invited residents to join us. There are many who did so and they come from all ages – as young as 17 years old and the oldest was 81. They shared with us the improvements they would like to see in their towns and HDB has taken in the feedback and developed the plans for each town based on the feedback.
There are three towns in the latest batch of ROH towns. Each town is different but there are some common themes across the renewal programme for all three towns. There are three Cs which are common. The first C is character. Singapore may be small but each HDB town has got its own distinctive character. We go to Marine Parade and it’s different from Jurong, it’s different from Pasir Ris and it’s different from Toa Payoh. So the first C is to strengthen the character and identity of the towns we are going to rejuvenate.
The second C is community. Many residents have given feedback that they would like to see more community spaces and facilities to bring residents together. That’s a common feedback and we will do it across all three towns.
The third C is on connectivity. Residents want to have more pedestrian and cycling connectivity so that they can walk and cycle across and within their own towns. We will also do that across all three towns.
Woodlands – Star Destination of the North
Let me now share more about the plans for Woodlands. Woodlands, as all of you know, is already a Regional Centre and the Northern Gateway to Singapore. We will make it even better. We will make Woodlands more vibrant. We will make Woodlands the “Star Destination of the North”.
I’ll sketch out briefly how we intend to do this. Let’s start with the Woodlands Regional Centre, which is where we are now. Just north of here, near where the Republic Polytechnic is, we will have the new Woodlands North station along the Thomson-East Coast Line – this will be integrated with the future Johor Bahru – Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link. From Woodlands North, you can take the RTS and travel to the Bukit Chagar terminus station in Johor, via a high bridge across the Straits of Johor. Woodlands North station will also be connected to the MRT so you can travel all around Singapore, and also connected to the upcoming North-South Corridor which will link Woodlands all the way to our CBD.
These are major game changers which will transform the whole of the Woodlands Centre. We will make it more convenient for residents because you will have many more commuting options to get to work and to get around Singapore. And since most of us enjoy going to Johor to eat, to shop and to play golf, you will also have many more commuting options to get to Johor during your weekend trips. The Woodlands Regional Centre will be a new hub for businesses, especially those with Malaysian and ASEAN linkages. And I think this will create many more opportunities and jobs for Singaporeans and will make Woodlands an attractive place to live, work and play.
Around this town centre, we will also have more spaces for community events. This is in line with feedback we have received from residents. We will be building a new Town Plaza right at the heart of Woodlands – next to Woodlands MRT station. This will be a new focal point for Woodlands residents to come together and to have events. I understand this is the area under MP Amrin. So residents here will benefit but I would appeal to the MP to allow neighbouring GRCs to also come and enjoy the space as this is a very attractive space for all of us.
Around the area, we’ve also set aside land for new public housing. Some of you may say that Woodlands is very nice but can I buy a flat here or can my children buy a flat here. And so we are setting aside land for new HDB flats around Woodlands. Around Woodlands Central, you can look forward to new housing developments located near the MRT station. If you go further northwards, we will also offer new housing in the Woodlands North Coast. This is the site around the north of Republic Polytechnic, near where the Woodlands North MRT station will be located. The concept for these new HDB flats is “Housing in the Woods”. We call it “Housing in the Woods” because if you look at the site, it has hilly terrain with abundant greenery. So we will make use of the natural landscape to create homes with lush greenery and good views of the Admiralty Park and the Straits of Johor.
If you continue to move north, you will soon reach the Waterfront, which is already very popular today. In fact, residents in our FGDs said this is one of their favourite recreational spaces in Woodlands. We will make it even better. We will create a new rustic park, with trails and a nature promenade. And we will make the entire waterfront experience more delightful and enjoyable for our residents. So all of you can look forward to interesting landscaping, pockets of greenery, and more shaded areas.
From Woodlands Central, to Woodlands North Coast and Woodlands Waterfront – the entire stretch is about 2 km long. We will link this up with a new connector called the WoodsVista Gallery. This will provide seamless access from Woodlands MRT station to Woodlands Waterfront and there will be dedicated cycling and pedestrian paths along this connector. When completed, it will be a new landmark in Woodlands, where residents can walk, jog or cycle and take in scenic views of the town.
Even as we put in all of these new amenities, we will rejuvenate some of the well-loved places in Woodlands. One of them is Woodlands Town Gardens. We will be upgrading and expanding the garden into a new “Discovery Playground” with new features such as a boardwalk, heritage corner and children’s playground. The revamped gardens will be called Marsiling Park. Residents will be able to rediscover the charm and heritage of the park and its surrounding areas, while enjoying the new leisure facilities.
In the centre of Woodlands we have the Woodland Sports Hall. Next to it, we will soon have an integrated retail and food hub. It will house a hawker centre, retail shops and a supermarket, offering more dining and retail choices for residents.
For those of you living near the east of Woodlands, which is the Admiralty area, you can look forward to a new Community Nexus which will be at the doorstep of Admiralty MRT station. There, we will have the soon-to-be-completed Kampung Admiralty integrated development with housing for the elderly, eldercare and childcare centres, a medical centre, a hawker centre and other dining and retail outlets. The Admiralty Place Neighbourhood Centre and Woodlands Galaxy Community Club are also located at the Nexus. So it will be a one-stop hub with a comprehensive range of community facilities for residents. And I see Mr Vikram Nair is here with his grassroots leaders so I’m sure many of you are looking forward to this in Admiralty.
Finally, there are other major developments taking place all around Woodlands as well. We will have new MRT stations here in Woodlands Town. Come 2019, Woodlands residents will be served by three new MRT stations along the Thomson-East Coast Line. This will make daily commute more convenient. There will be new cycling paths connecting to the MRT stations and we will progressively enhance the entire cycling network in Woodlands. One of the new MRT stations is Woodlands South station, next to which there will be an integrated healthcare complex complete with a park. This will take some time but the intention is to have an integrated healthcare complex next to Woodlands South MRT station. This will bring healthcare facilities closer to home, and support our elderly as they age in place.
For residents living near the Marsiling area, that’s where the Woodlands Checkpoint is, I think all of you would have read the news that the Checkpoint itself is also going to be extended. Today, this is already the world’s busiest Checkpoint, and I think certainly one of the world’s busiest land crossings. And I’m sure residents in Marsiling feel it. So we are extending the Checkpoint to increase clearance capacity and to enhance security which is important. We are expanding it and this will help address traffic congestion issues in the Marsiling and Woodlands areas too.
These are major changes taking place for the whole of Woodlands. The changes will take time to complete, but in 5 years, I think we will be able to see signs of these transformation taking place. And we can truly look forward to a new Star Destination in the North. I’ve described the plans in Woodlands in detail. But as mentioned, for the ROH programme there are also two other towns involved - Toa Payoh and Pasir Ris. So next Sunday we will have the launch for Toa Payoh and the following Sunday the launch for Pasir Ris. Likewise, we can see similar transformations unfolding in these towns too.
I encourage you to walk through the exhibition, explore the visuals, study the plans and give us your feedback and ideas. The plans are not final yet so we can still take in your ideas and feedback to continuously improve and fine-tune the plans. I think this is exciting work that all of us can look forward to. Across all our HDB towns, we can build better homes and the best possible living environment for ourselves and our children. On that note, I encourage all of you to join us in this journey to build a better Singapore. Thank you.