SINGAPORE - Residents of Tanjong Pagar and Radin Mas can expect to see more sheltered walkways, barrier-free ramps, outdoor lifts and sky bridges in the next five years.
Some $15 to $20 million will be spent on town improvement projects under the Tanjong Pagar Town Council, according to the five-year master plan for Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC unveiled on Sunday.
These projects include the addition of outdoor lifts at link bridges, skybridges, covered linkways and drop-off porches at the bottom of blocks.
The area is also set to get new MRT stations on the Downtown and Thomson-East Coast Lines, and will continue to benefit from the Housing Board's neighbourhood renewal and home improvement programmes.
Over the the past five years alone, some $377 million was spent on more than 1,000 upgrading and town improvement projects in Tanjong Pagar and Radin Mas.
The latest master plan was unveiled during the welcome party for the new Tiong Bahru View estate by Tanjong Pagar MPs Chan Chun Sing, Indranee Rajah, Lily Neo, Chia Shi-Lu and Radin Mas MP Sam Tan.
Also with them were former public servant Joan Pereira and senior police officer Melvin Yong, both touted to be the new faces for Tanjong Pagar GRC in the coming election.
Referring to the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who also served as MP for Tanjong Pagar, Ms Indranee said: "What we have is a tremendous legacy. What he did in this area is astonishing and amazing. For us, I think what it means is, it's a legacy to be carried on."
"You don't rest on the wonderful work of the previous generation. When the baton is handed over to you, when you now have to carry that responsibility and take it forward, we ourselves also have to have a vision of where we want to go."
"You can see with the master plan what that vision is in terms of physical infrastructure. And it's very much a sense of, this has now been handed to us, and it is our task to take it forward."
Housewife Sherry Chia, 32, who has lived in Kim Tian Road in Tiong Bahru for three years, said the area could do with more ramps, sheltered walkways and zebra crossings.
"It's hard to get home from the MRT when it is raining," said Ms Chia, who lives with her husband and three children in a four-room flat. "There are a lot of old folks in our area - we need to make it safer and more convenient for them too."
