New nursing home, active ageing centres as Holland-Bukit Panjang aims to be ‘wellness heartland’

SINGAPORE - Holland-Bukit Panjang is planning to be Singapore’s first “wellness heartland” by providing facilities for a rapidly ageing population.

These include a new nursing home and active ageing centre to be located next to Greenridge Shopping Centre and jointly operated by St Luke’s Eldercare and New Life Community Services.

This new centre, which is expected to open in 2027, will be one of five to open in the neighbourhood, with another one of these to be located above the Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre and Market in Bukit Panjang Ring Road.

The Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council announced its plans for the next five years on April 5 via an exhibition at Block 259 Bukit Panjang Ring Road.

The town council oversees Bukit Panjang SMC and Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, which covers the Bukit Timah, Cashew, Ulu Pandan and Zhenghua wards.

Bukit Panjang MP Liang Eng Hwa, who is chairman of the town council, said the new active ageing centres will benefit both seniors and their caregivers. He said: “Having these activity centres also help support the families, (providing) the peace of mind that we have all these facilities there to take care of your aged parents.”

Mr Liang was speaking to the media at Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre, flanked by MPs for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC: Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann, Mr Christopher de Souza and Mr Edward Chia.

The town council also promised to upgrade Bukit Panjang Neighbourhood 5 Park and build more therapeutic gardens, among other plans. It hopes the vision of a “wellness heartland” will be a model for future heartland developments across Singapore.

On April 5, it launched an event titled Our Home Of Possibilities!, which included unveiling commemorative books recording how the town has progressed towards this vision.

Speaking to residents, Mr Liang said these included a new polyclinic, hawker centre and a Senja Road interchange which links Bukit Panjang to the Kranji Expressway (KJE).

He added he will still be looking to improve the area, noting it is now a far cry from before when it was quite “ulu” (remote in Malay).

He said: “We are still obsessed and passionate about making the town even better.”

The master plan mentioned upcoming wellness-focused facilities, including

the new Central Manpower Base (CMPB),

which is set to open in phases from 2025.

Located opposite Cashew MRT station, it will have a football field and fitness zone which the public can access.

There will also be more covered linkways and convenient drop-off points, such as at blocks 501, 503 and 504 in Jelapang Road.

Meanwhile, Dr Balakrishnan did not answer multiple questions from the media regarding his purported involvement in a recent controversial Facebook post made by former Nominated MP Calvin Cheng on March 13.

Dr Balakrishnan’s official Facebook account was found to have “liked” the post, which proposed sending a group of activists to Gaza, as long as they never returned.

On April 2,

Dr Balakrishnan said he did not “like” the post.

He added he did not share the views put forth by Mr Cheng, and he had taken measures to enhance his account’s security.

His press secretary said the same day a report had been filed with Facebook parent company Meta over the unauthorised activity, and Meta was investigating.

When ST asked Dr Balakrishnan on April 5 for his views regarding Mr Cheng’s post, he said he was not going to deal with that as it would be a distraction from the event.

Dr Balakrishnan, who has led the PAP team in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC through the last three elections, added he would not be announcing candidates for the upcoming one yet.

On Singapore Democratic Party’s chairman

Paul Tambyah declaring his stake in Bukit Panjang SMC,

Dr Balakrishnan said the party is still waiting for SDP to announce its overall slate.

He said: “All I can say is that we’ve got a great team here. You can see everybody knows us and what we’ve been able to achieve together. In due time, we will make the appropriate announcements.”