IT IS a $2 million compromise that the Government has worked out to appease Serangoon Gardens residents unhappy over the foreign worker dormitory to come up in their neighbourhood.

This is what it would take to build the 400m access road to the dorm, which will occupy the old Serangoon Gardens Technical School premises.

A National Development Ministry spokesman, responding to queries from The Straits Times, cited $2 million as the 'ballpark cost' for the temporary dorm, subject to adjustments based on detailed design.

With the new two-way road to the dorm from Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 intended only for vehicles ferrying the workers to and from their lodgings, these vehicles will not need to use Serangoon Gardens' Burghley Drive.

This was one big bugbear for residents of Burghley, as the proposed dorm - just 10m from their front doors - presented the prospect of foreign workers emptying out into the small street.

Now, the Burghley Drive entrance will be sealed up, and the dorm will be set further in.

But another lot of residents are fuming - those living in Tai Hwan Gardens, who see the move as merely having shifted the problem into their backyard.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.