Speech by Minister Lawrence Wong at Yew Tee Town Day
Sep 22, 2019
Good morning! Very good to join all of you today for our Yew Tee Town Day. I would like to share with you some of the broader development plans that we have for Choa Chu Kang – the whole Choa Chu Kang town, but particularly for the northern part of Choa Chu Kang, and that includes Keat Hong division, Limbang division, and Yew Tee division. So all three divisions can look forward to a better Choa Chu Kang.
Future Developments in Choa Chu Kang
What are some of the plans we have for the entire Choa Chu Kang town, and some of the developments you can look forward to? Choa Chu Kang town centre itself, where the MRT station is near Lot One, will become a major transport hub in the future. There is already an MRT station, which is going to be connected to the Jurong Regional Line eventually, and also the Bukit Panjang LRT, and a bus interchange. So all of these transport nodes will come together in Choa Chu Kang town centre, which will become a major transport node with residential, commercial and community spaces.
We are adding new facilities around this town centre. We have already announced a new SAFRA Club near Choa Chu Kang Park – that is already one new facility. Today, I’m happy to share that there will be one more facility coming up in Choa Chu Kang town centre – something that many residents there have asked for, which is a new hawker centre, as part of Choa Chu Kang town centre.
So, Choa Chu Kang town centre – around the Keat Hong and Lot One area – will become better. We will develop it over time with more connections between the town, and also to allow people to move around the town conveniently and in all weather conditions.
Future Developments in Limbang
As you move up from Keat Hong along the MRT, you come to this part – Limbang and Yew Tee. Now we change GRCs, from Choa Chu Kang to Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC. In Limbang, Yew Tee, we are also going to have new developments. In Limbang, there is the Choa Chu Kang Sports Centre – the stadium. Since there is a SAFRA going to be built, the stadium cannot be just left as it is. The Choa Chu Kang stadium is also going to be redeveloped and in fact, it is happening now. Over time we will have better, newer facilities and water sports facilities for residents of Choa Chu Kang, Yew Tee and Limbang.
Near the stadium, we have Limbang Shopping Centre – that is also going to be upgraded. I have shared the plans with my residents in Limbang before. Limbang Shopping Centre is a neighbourhood centre. We are going to upgrade it starting next year with more shops, more F&B options, more eating options, and that too will be upgraded by next year onwards.
Within the Limbang-Yew Tee area, there are three parks – Yew Tee Park, Limbang Park and Stagmont Park. We are upgrading and refreshing the parks. There will be more greenery, more playgrounds for the children, more family-friendly spaces.
Then we have the MRT track and MRT viaduct connecting Keat Hong, Limbang and Yew Tee. Under the MRT viaduct, there is a lot of space. We will create a green spine, which will connect residents from Keat Hong to Limbang to Yew Tee. It will provide more greenery and more park facilities for our residents. The green spine will connect upwards from Keat Hong, Limbang all the way to Yew Tee MRT station and beyond. All the residents around Choa Chu Kang can share a common green space under the MRT track. These are the developments you can see from Choa Chu Kang, Keat Hong up to Limbang and now to Yew Tee.
Future Developments in Yew Tee
Since this is Yew Tee Day, I will focus also on a new development coming up in Yew Tee itself. If you look around here in Yew Tee, there is not a lot of space left. There is only one space left for development in Yew Tee – it is over there, one big hardcourt space, empty space, very prime because it is near the MRT station. We have been thinking about what we can do in this space.
Some of you know that we have Kampung Admiralty, a very successful project. We have been integrating HDB flats for seniors with many facilities all under one roof, where you can get access to convenient services like healthcare, eldercare, childcare, F&B choices all in the same place.
Kampung Admiralty has been successful. We have received very positive feedback and it has even won international awards. After Kampung Admiralty, we have been looking at where we can do the next integrated project. It is very hard to find good sites because we want a site that is conveniently located next to MRT stations, and can serve residents well.
We eventually found this site, and I am very happy to share and announce to all of you today that Yew Tee will be the next site for our HDB integrated development. We haven’t called it a name yet – maybe it will be called Kampung Yew Tee – but what will this integrated development contain?
It will have 2-room Flexi flats for seniors just like Kampung Admiralty, a community club (CC) facility, a polyclinic and a kidney dialysis centre. Most importantly, because of all your feedback and requests, it will have a hawker centre here in Yew Tee as well.
This new development will take some time, but we hope to start developing over the next few years and maybe it will be ready by around 2026. Please be patient, we are starting to work on it, and very soon, all of the residents around Limbang and Yew Tee can benefit from more services. There will be more convenience for all of you and your friends in the neighbourhood. We will have more services for healthcare, for community services, for F&B and importantly, getting together and building stronger community bonds here in Yew Tee.
Conclusion
In closing, I would like to thank all the people who have been working on this project, not just in Yew Tee but Choa Chu Kang, Limbang and Yew Tee. A lot of government agencies, a lot of people including the town council have been working on all of these upgrading projects, working hard together to coordinate the plans, to bring you a better living environment for all of our residents here. We have put up some exhibits, so you can see the exhibits and information on the new plans that are coming up for our town. I hope all of you will support these plans.
Importantly, upgrading and infrastructure is just part of the improvements we can make. A lot of the emotional connection with the town depends on residents yourselves, the bonding, the interaction, the heart-ware that we can build. So I hope you take full advantage of the new facilities that are coming up. We can have more activities together, you can join us and we can build stronger community bonds and make Choa Chu Kang, Limbang and Yew Tee a better place for all of us and our residents.
Thank you very much. Please enjoy yourselves and have a good weekend!