SINGAPORE - Singapore's newest Housing Board town, Tengah, will be set apart by its rich greenery and sustainable features, with the first flats there to be launched in 2018.
Billed as a "forest town", the 700ha area in the west will be the first HDB town to be developed since Punggol two decades ago. It is located between the existing towns of Jurong East, Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Batok.
At the HDB Awards dinner on Thursday (Sept 8), National Development Minister Lawrence Wong revealed the masterplan for Tengah.
A forest fringe will run around the entire town, which is about the size of Bishan.
The town will include a 100m-wide, 5km-long forest corridor linking it to the surrounding green network between the western and central catchment areas.
Bounded by Kranji Expressway, the Pan-Island Expressway, Brickland Road and Bukit Batok Road, the Tengah area today is largely forest and scrubland. But it will eventually contain 42,000 new homes: 30,000 units of public housing and 12,000 units of private housing.
Greenery will be woven through the town, from a large central park to "community farmways" that run through housing estates with gardens, play areas and farms.
As part of Singapore's efforts to go car-lite, all roads in Tengah will have dedicated walking and cycling paths on both sides.
Tengah will also boast Singapore's first car-free town centre, set in lush parkland and with traffic running underneath the town centre.
The development of Tengah town is part of the west's transformation. The upcoming Jurong Lake District, touted as Singapore's second central business district, lies just to the south of Tengah. Tengah's western industrial area is also part of the Jurong Innovation District.
The plans for Tengah will be exhibited at the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh from 11.30am on Sept 9, and will run until Sept 25, from 9am to 8pm. Members of the public are invited to visit and give their feedback.
