SINGAPORE - Bukit Panjang residents in Senja estate now have an underground linkway connecting them to a third entrance of Bukit Panjang MRT station.

This comes after years of lobbying and delays in the construction project.

The new entrance - Entrance C - connects the MRT station to a 100m underpass.

This means residents no longer have to cross a busy junction at the intersection of Bukit Panjang Road and Woodlands Road.

The linkway will serve as many as 50 housing blocks, or about 8,000 households, in the area.

The underpass entrance is a short walk from amenities and places such as West View Primary, Pacific Healthcare Nursing Home and Senja Soka Centre.

The underpass was opened by Holland-Bukit Timah GRC MPs Vivian Balakrishnan, Liang Eng Hwa and Teo Ho Pin on Saturday afternoon (Feb 10).

Bukit Panjang MRT station, which opened in December 2015, is the western terminus of Downtown Line 2. Only two entrances were planned and built for the station when the line was designed.

The Land Transport Authority agreed to a third entrance in 2013 after lobbying by Holland-Bukit Timah GRC residents and MPs.

It was originally slated to open in December 2016. However, this was delayed because of site constraints and construction difficulties on account of gravel rocks beneath the ground.

Said Mr Liang, the grassroots adviser to the Zhenghua ward in the group representation constituency, of residents having to cross the road above-ground: "It was not a safe way to get into the station during periods of high commuter traffic volume."

He said of the underpass: "We felt that this project is absolutely necessary not just for the convenience of first- and last-mile connectivity, but also to better distribute commuter flow during peak hours."