SPEECH BY MR MAH BOW TAN, MINISTER FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AT THE MND COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY DEBATE, 03 MARCH 2011 AT 4.40 PM IN PARLIAMENT Part 3: Sustainability – Regearing our homes for the future 1. Mr Chairman, Sir. Rejuvenating Our Heartlands 2. Besides helping Singaporeans own their homes, our longer term challenge is to remake our heartlands so that they remain relevant and sustainable homes for our people. Remaking Our Heartland 3. Today, we have various estate renewal programmes – Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP), Home Improvement Programme (HIP), Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP), and Remaking our Heartland (ROH) programme. Our most comprehensive effort is the ROH programme. I recently announced the second batch of ROH plans for East Coast, Hougang, and Jurong Lake. 4. Mr Cedric Foo and Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked what we can expect under ROH. For each of these areas, the plans will be comprehensive and cover four key aspects. First - The town and neighbourhood centres of each area will be rejuvenated. The Bedok Town Centre is going to be rejuvenated. It will include new mixed developments for multiple uses like commercial, residential and transportation. Hougang Town Centre is another example. Second – Outdoor recreational spaces will be expanded so that residents can enjoy active lifestyles and gather as a community. Third – Existing homes will be upgraded and new housing like this riverfront development in Hougang will be introduced. Fourth, even as each area is rejuvenated, its heritage will be captured and preserved – what makes each area special. I think this is very important. We do not want to make every town look the same in Singapore. 5. For Jurong Lake, specifically, residents can already see some of the developments coming up. At Jurong East Town Centre, the former Jurong Entertainment Centre will be redeveloped into JCube by 2012. By 2013, a new pedestrian mall will link Jurong East MRT to Lakeside. The Jurong General Hospital and Community Hospital will be ready in 2014 and 2015 respectively, while the new Continuing Education & Training (CET) West Campus will open in 2013. To catalyse the growth of Jurong Lake District, MND and two of our agencies, AVA and BCA, will 1 relocate to the area as the anchor tenant in Lend Lease’s development. When completed in 2014, the mixed-use project will feature green spaces and roof gardens. It will inject new lifestyle and retail buzz to the town centre. By the way, it is only the top bit there that will be MND, the rest are shops and retail. But it will really make a big difference to the Jurong Lake District. It is going to catalyse the area. Apart from the Town Centre, the neighbourhood centres will be spruced up and revitalised. To help residents fully enjoy these developments, the ROH plans will improve connectivity in the area. Residents from as far as Bukit Batok and Bukit Timah can cycle, walk or jog to the Jurong Lake along the new pedestrian and cycling networks to be developed. 6. The ROH plans will directly benefit 700,000 residents, who live in the area, and many others who work, visit and spend time in these areas. We will spend at least $1 billion to remake these areas over the next 5 years. 7. We have also made considerable progress with the first batch of ROH towns. 7.1. Yishun is very different today with the completion of developments such as the revamped Northpoint (where a Library is co-located), the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and ABC Waters works at Lower Seletar Reservoir. 7.2. Dawson Estate will also see a fresh lease of life with the injection of new generation housing, which will be amidst greenery. 7.3. Lastly, our efforts to build a new town in Punggol have begun to bear fruit. When we first embarked on the Punggol 21 plan in 1996, Punggol was just a forested area with a few roads and some fish farms. When the Asian Financial Crisis struck in 1997, take-up of flats slowed all over Singapore, including Punggol. Some questioned whether Punggol would ever take off. The MPs in the area were wondering if there would be enough flats, enough people moving in, and whether the MRT station could be opened, and so on. But, HDB pressed on and launched new flats when demand picked up. In 2007, we updated our vision with Punggol 21 Plus. HDB worked with PUB to construct a 4.2km waterway through the town, something never done before. This waterway serves an important purpose – to connect two reservoirs – as well as allow for beautiful waterfront housing. 7.4. By year end, 23,000 flats will be completed; including developments like Punggol Periwinkle as shown on the screen and Treelodge@Punggol – whose residents received their keys from DPM Teo recently. Many of these developments boast HDB’s new housing features like green roofs and podium 2 carparks. Another 12,000 flats will be completed by 2015. Punggol is a good example of our efforts to not just build towns but to create green spaces for people to relax and reconnect with nature even as Singapore becomes more built-up. The Punggol Waterway Park and Sungei Serangoon Park will be ready by Jun 2011. The 17km Northern Eastern Park Connector Loop will complete by Dec 2011. 8. We will continue to find new ways of rejuvenating and revitalising our HDB estates. Ms Indranee Rajah suggested incorporating more open space in HDB estates, as well as integrated sports facilities at the precinct level. We can look into these suggestions. We will need to look at precinct-level planning holistically and consider the appropriate balance in providing open versus built-up space. Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) 9. Let me now talk about another very important and very major project, that is rolling out in our HDB estates. That is the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP). The ROH is a pain-staking effort to rejuvenate selected areas holistically, and it will take time to roll out to all estates. I assure Mr Liang Eng Hwa that the ROH will reach Bukit Panjang, sooner or later, depending on the budget. Meanwhile, other residents can continue to enjoy and benefit from HDB’s core upgrading programmes. 10. Dr Ahmad Magad highlighted that our population is a fast-ageing one. That is why we have to roll out barrier-free accessibility for the elderly faster. And that is exactly what we have done. We have introduced the LUP in 2001, and we have made very good progress. 11. Mr Ang Mong Seng asked about the progress of LUP, and let me report to the House what we have achieved so far. To-date, 4,900 (96 per cent) of eligible blocks have been offered LUP. I am pleased to announce that the final batch of precincts will be selected this year and we are on track to complete LUP for all eligible blocks by 2014. This is the target that we set five years ago. We are on track and we are going to achieve our target. 12. This has been a massive exercise, costing the government $5.5 billion for the whole exercise over the ten years. This is the cost of building the North-east MRT Line (NEL) and Sengkang LRT combined. It has involved many man-years of design, planning, consultation and construction. On behalf of all residents who have benefitted, young and old, I want to thank all those who have helped to make LUP possible – HDB engineers, architects and planners, Branch office and Town Council staff, Advisers and grassroots leaders, consultants, contractors and their workers, both foreign and local. 3 13. As we near the end of the programme, it is timely to take stock of the long 10– year journey we have taken. 13.1. Over the years, we have significantly increased the number of blocks that will benefit under LUP. When we first announced LUP in 2001, we set the target of bringing direct lift access to all high-rise HDB blocks, numbering some 4,400 blocks. These were blocks that were built before 1990, because lifts built after 1990 had lift access. 13.2. Subsequently in 2005, encouraged by positive feedback and more requests from the house, we went on to extend the LUP to about 900 low-rise blocks, if they could be done within the cost cap. If you recall, at that time, blocks four, five floors and below were not eligible for LUP. We changed that in 2005. 13.3. Because of our ageing population, we also committed in 2005 to complete LUP for eligible blocks within 10 years, i.e. by 2014, so that elderly residents can benefit from direct lift access more quickly. 13.4. This effort to bring direct lift access to as many blocks as possible, as quickly as possible, was not only massive in scale but also called for considerable innovation. HDB piloted many new technologies so that LUP costs could be lowered and more blocks could qualify. For example, blocks in estates like Pasir Ris and Tampines are affected by height constraints. So, blocks in these estates could not accommodate a higher lift machine room at the top of the block for the lifts to serve additional storeys. In 2006, HDB piloted a new lift system, called the machine room-less system (MRL), that did not require machine rooms at all. As a result, we could now implement LUP for such blocks in Tampines and Pasir Ris. Residents here are now very happy because top floors are now able to get the lifts.