Several roads and lanes around Chinatown will be closed for the opening of the Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebration 2016 on Saturday.

These include parts of New Bridge Road, Eu Tong Sen Street and South Bridge Road, as well as Keong Saik Road, Temple Street, Smith Street and Sago Lane.

The roads will be closed at various timings, with most starting from 8pm tonight until 2am the following day, or 2pm on Saturday, the police said in a press release yesterday.

In addition, Mosque Street will be converted to a bi-directional road from 2pm to 11pm on Saturday.

SBS Transit and SMRT buses plying the affected roads will be diverted during the road closures. Access to those roads will be granted only to police and emergency vehicles.

Parking is restricted along the closed roads and vehicles found parking indiscriminately or causing obstruction will be towed away, the police said.

The celebration, organised by the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens' Consultative Committee, will end on March 8. The first day of Chinese New Year is on Feb 8.

The celebration will also include a street bazaar, a lion dance competition and a display of 2,668 handcrafted lanterns in the shape of monkeys, peaches, spring blossoms and gold zodiac coins. The lanterns were designed in partnership with students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Members of the public may call the organiser on 9391-0198 for inquiries on the road closure.