Tengah new town to be built right into nature
Artist’s impression of Tengah town centre, which will offer a car-lite environment with vehicles plying underneath. Source: HDB
Singapore’s 24th HDB town, Tengah, will be the first forest town in Singapore with a car-free town centre.
National Development Minister Lawrence Wong unveiled the masterplan for the new town at the HDB Awards ceremony on Thursday (8 September).
Located in the western part of Singapore, Tengah is bounded by major roads and expressways.
The Jurong Innovation District (JID), a futuristic industrial district housing learning, research, innovation and manufacturing activities, will be located next to Tengah.
Featuring five housing districts – the Plantation District, Garden District, Park District, Brickland District and Forest Hill District – the area will contain about 42,000 new homes, of which some 30,000 will be public housing units and the rest private units.
The HDB revealed that the first batch of flats will be launched in the Plantation District from 2018.
One of Tengah’s main attractions will be a 5km long forest corridor, which will form part of the larger network of greenery that connects the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and the Western Water Catchment Area.
Tengah town centre, which will be designed amidst a lush park, will offer a car-lite environment with vehicles plying underneath the town centre. It will also have dedicated walking and cycling paths on both sides of the road.
A large central park, about the size of Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West, will be complemented with canals and ponds to provide lush greenery and blue spaces, while community farms will allow for urban farming and community gardening.
Road networks within the town will be designed to meet future needs and could support future forms of mobility, such as autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars.
An exhibition on Tengah’s future plans will be held from 9 to 25 September at the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh.
The public is invited to visit the exhibition and give their feedback.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
