THE decisions to press on with Tuas Port and Changi Airport Terminal 5 (T5) “send a strong and clear signal to the world that Singapore is emerging stronger from the pandemic, and charging full steam ahead”, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday (Aug 21) evening, as he gave updates on the progress of these major infrastructure projects.

The first 2 berths at Tuas Port started operations in Dec 2021. Because Singapore planned ahead, its port was able to handle extra volumes during the pandemic, noted PM Lee.

“While ports in other countries experienced closures, severe congestion and long delays... our port remained open 24/7 throughout,” he said. Singapore handled a record-high 37.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2021.

Phase I of Tuas Port has been completed, with 3 more phases to follow. Upon completion, Singapore will have the world’s largest fully automated port, “and that should make us a leading global player in the maritime space”, said PM Lee.

As previously announced, Tuas Port will be able to handle 65 million TEUs annually upon its completion. It will have 66 berths spanning 26 km, occupying about 1,337 hectares of land, the equivalent of about 3,300 football fields.

PM Lee also gave an update on Changi Airport’s T5 “mega terminal”, which will have the capacity to handle 50 million passengers each year, about the same as Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 put together. Next to T5, the Changi East Urban District will be developed as a business and lifestyle destination.

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Before Covid-19, the government was about to call a tender to build T5, recalled PM Lee. But plans were paused for 2 years during the pandemic, during which time the government reassessed the long-term prospects for air travel and improved T5’s design.

“We concluded that the future of aviation remains bright,” he said. With air travel now recovering and expected to keep growing in the longer term due to the region’s fast-expanding middle class, the government decided to restart the T5 project. As earlier announced, the goal is for T5 to be operational in the mid-2030s, with construction expected to begin in about 2 years.

Covid-19 also informed the redesign of T5 for more resilience, particularly in a pandemic, with the ability to scale operations up and down more easily and isolate passengers from different flights to limit cross infection, said PM Lee.

According to a Ministry of Transport factsheet, T5 will be able to operate as smaller sub-terminals as needed, with spaces that can be converted for purposes such as testing or segregation of passengers. It will have specialised provisions such as contactless systems at passenger touchpoints and enhanced ventilation systems that can be activated during a pandemic, to reduce the spread of disease.

“Our seaport and airport play a critical role putting us on the global stage,” said PM Lee. “They connect us to the world, and keep Singapore a thriving business and trading hub. That is why we have always taken the long view, and continuously improve our sea and air ports.”

Click here for the full list of stories from the National Day Rally 2022.