By the end of this month, the Boon Lay MRT station will no longer be the last one on the East-West line when two new stations farther west, Pioneer and Joo Koon, open.

And by the third quarter of the year, a retail and transport hub will open next to the Boon Lay station. The complex will house the bus interchange, along with shops - all cocooned in air-conditioned comfort.

The two new MRT stations in the west beyond Boon Lay will serve close to 35,000 people living in Jurong West or working in the Jurong Industrial Estate.

Without these two stations, residents and workers have been alighting at the Boon Lay station and then cycling, walking or taking one of the 10 feeder buses from the Boon Lay bus interchange to their final destinations.

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