Dorm access road to cost $2m
But Tai Hwan Gardens residents say plan pushes problem to them
By Lim Wei Chean
IT IS a $2 million compromise that the Government has worked out to appease Serangoon Gardens residents unhappy over the foreign worker dormitory to come up in their neighbourhood.
This is what it would cost to build the 400m access road to the dorm, which will occupy the old Serangoon Gardens Technical School premises.
A National Development Ministry spokesman, responding to Straits Times queries, cited $2 million as the ‘ballpark cost’ for the new access road of the temporary dorm, subject to adjustments based on the detailed design.
With the new two-way road to the dorm from Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, vehicles ferrying the workers to and from their lodgings will not need to use Serangoon Gardens’ Burghley Drive.
This was one big bugbear for residents of Burghley, as the proposed dorm - just 10m from their front doors - presented the prospect of foreign workers being emptied out into the small street.
Now, the Burghley Drive entrance will be sealed up, and the dorm will be set further in.
But another lot of residents are fuming - those living in Tai Hwan Gardens, who see the move as merely having shifted the problem into their backyard.
Business owner Mabel Koh, 46, who lives in Tai Hwan Heights, said: ‘Now they are pushing the whole thing to our side without solving the problem.’
Dwellers of Kingsgrove Condominium next to Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 will face the entrance to the new access road; others living along the canal - along Tai Hwan Terrace, Tai Hwan Grove, Tai Hwan Crescent and Tai Hwan Drive - will face the road.
Banker Mark Giblett, 40, worries about the noise and pollution caused by buses fetching the workers to and from their work place in the IT and electronics factories in Ang Mo Kio. He added that, with these workers working shifts, they will be going in and out of the compound at irregular hours, potentially causing disruption at all hours.
Other residents pointed out that Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 is already jammed during the morning peak hours, with motorists using it to avoid the Electronic Road Pricing charges on the Central Expressway (CTE). Having more vehicles will only worsen the situation, they said.
An industrial designer who gave his name only as Mr Low suggested having the dorm link to the CTE directly, instead of looping out to the main road.
Responding to this, a Land Transport Authority spokesman said the request would be looked at ‘based on careful consideration of the safety and traffic implications’.
Ms Koh noted angrily that none of the solutions tackled the basic concern - that of residents having to deal with 600 new foreign dwellers coming into their estate.
Source : Straits Times - 07 Oct 2008
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