Masterplan for HDB's upcoming Tengah town unveiled

SINGAPORE'S latest Housing & Development Board (HDB) town, Tengah, will feature a car-free town centre, lush greenery and community farms.

Located between Jurong East, Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Batok, Tengah will be equivalent to Bishan in size, at some 700 hectares.

The new town's masterplan was unveiled by National Development Minister Lawrence Wong at the HDB Awards Ceremony on Thursday.

"The key features of Tengah will revolve around nature and the community, to create an endearing town where future residents can experience being at home with nature," the HDB said in a release.

Comprising five districts - dubbed Plantation, Garden, Forest Hill, Brickland and Park - the development is expected to provide 30,000 public housing units and 12,000 private ones when completed. The first batch of flats will be made available from 2018.

One of the main features of Tengah - which has been dubbed a "forest town" - will be a 100-metre-wide and 5-km-long forest corridor, which will form part of the larger network of greenery that connects the Western Catchment Area and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

The forest corridor will be made up of existing secondary forest species; more native rainforest species will be planted as well to transform the area into a "rich forest habitat", the HDB said.

Spaces for community gardening and urban farming will also be introduced for the first time in Tengah in the form of community farmways. The linear farmways will traverse several housing districts within the town, providing opportunities for social interactions among future residents through shared recreational activities, such as hobby farming and gardening.

The masterplan for Tengah is part of ongoing efforts to transform the regional district of the west, the HDB said. The upcoming Jurong Lake District, dubbed Singapore's second central business district (it will house the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high-speed rail terminus), lies just south of Tengah.

The new town's western industrial area also lies within the Jurong Innovation District.

"The plans for Tengah and Jurong Innovation District will collectively revitalise the western region and open up exciting new job, residential and recreational opportunities for all who live in Singapore," the HDB said.