A Faster and More Comfortable Ferry Service to for Recruits and their Parents

24 Jan 1997

The sea journey to Pulau Tekong now takes only 15 minutes by fast craft compared to the 45 minutes by Ramp Powered Launch. The new fast craft ferry service which conducted its trial runs in November last year, was launched this afternoon by the Chief of Army, Major- General Han Eng Juan. The new service will benefit recruits at the Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC) on Pulau Tekong. Parents visiting them on the island on parents’ visit days and servicemen from other Armed Forces (SAF) units going there for training will also enjoy the faster and more comfortable ride to Tekong.

The four fully air-conditioned fast craft contracted by the Ministry of Defence can each take up to 100 passengers per trip. The former service by the SAF’s Ramp Powered Launch lacked passenger comfort as they were designed primarily for transporting stores and vehicles. The fast craft also come complete with shelters from the sun and rain. Two fast craft make daily runs from 6.00 a.m. to midnight between the Commando Jetty at and Tekong. Two more are added from Fridays to Sundays to handle the larger passenger crowd when recruits leave Tekong for home or return to camp after the weekend, and on parents’ visit days.

This afternoon’s launch of the new fast craft ferry service is part of MINDEF’s continuing efforts to commercialise some of its services for the welfare of SAF servicemen. It also allows the SAF to channel its limited resources to meet operational and training requirements. In Jan 96, the SAF also introduced a bus ferry service to SAF camps. The buses run on a fixed schedule along specified routes picking up servicemen from nearby MRT stations, bus stops and bus interchanges and bringing them to their camps in the morning and back to these places again after office hours.

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