Flash floods hit Orchard, other parts of S'pore

Flash floods hit the Orchard Road area and other parts of Singapore on Friday afternoon following heavy rain.

Water was seen to have seeped into the linkway between Orchard MRT station and Tangs, while Liat Towers on Orchard Road also suffered flooding around it.

In its updates on Facebook, national water agency PUB said at 5:25pm that flash floods occurred at Cuscaden Road, Newton Circus, Kampong Java, Lincoln Road, Wee Nam Road, Cambridge

Road and junction of Bukit Timah Road and Sixth Avenue.

There was also ponding reported at Orchard Link at 3:58pm and Monk's Hill Terrace at 5:22pm.

All flash floods and ponding had subsided by 6:35pm, it said.

Reader Sudar Zainal said that as a result of the rain, many people took shelter at Lucky Plaza, creating heavy human traffic there.

Separately, PUB announced on Friday that it is planning to roll out 10 drainage improvement projects on top of 26 drainage projects that commenced this month.

The new projects involve expanding roadside drains at flood-prone areas such as South Bridge Road, North Canal Road, Upper Hokien Street, Upper Pickering Street, Bencoolen Street, Prinsep Street, Rochor Road (from Waterloo Street to Bencoolen Street), Admiralty Road West, Neo Pee Teck Lane, First Lok Yang Road, Arab Street and Rochor Canal Road.

The PUB will also improve drainage infrastructure at three other non-flood prone areas by expanding drains at Shanghai Road and Wee Nam Road and Outram Road and Tiong Bahru Road. It will also perform road raising at Jalan Dusun, Jalan Datoh and Jalan Raja Udang.

The works will commence in the first quarter of 2012 and are expected to be completed in 2013.