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More shelters to ease travelling

31 Mar 2013|3,315 views

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will call a tender this quarter to build more covered walkways around MRT stations.

Commuters living in the northern and western parts of Singapore will be the first beneficiaries of extended sheltered walkways from MRT stations in a project costing $330 million.

The first phase of the project will include the stretch of stations from Ang Mo Kio to Marsiling, and Tiong Bahru to Clementi. The second phase will include stations such as Bishan, Serangoon and Little India

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will call a tender this quarter to build linkways around the first batch of 19 stations such as Ang Mo Kio, Khatib and Clementi.

The aim is to give shelter from the rain and sun to everyone walking within 400m of a station.

For instance, at Khatib station, a covered walkway from the bus stop in front of Block 624 at Yishun Ring Road will be extended across its junction with Yishun Avenue 2 to serve commuters exiting at that end of the station.

Mr Paul Fok, Group Director for Engineering at LTA, said the 'Walk2Ride' project kickstarted with a commuter asking for a covered walkway on a vacant piece of state land behind Lakeside station - one of hundreds of such requests the LTA gets yearly.

Under old guidelines, the LTA would build walkways from transport nodes like MRT stations to schools and healthcare facilities within 200m, and it could only build on road reserves.

There will also be covered links within 200m of LRT stations, bus interchanges and major bus stops

At Lakeside, commuters were cutting across vacant land to get to Yuan Ching Secondary School and the housing estate next to it. The school was located about 350m away from Lakeside station - outside the stipulated 200m radius.

The LTA decided to build the walkway anyway, which meant it had to 'break a number of rules', Mr Fok noted. Apart from going beyond the 200m radius, it also had to seek permission from other government agencies to build on the land.

In all, the LTA plans to add 200km of linkways to the 46km already in place over six phases. Tenders will be called every quarter till the middle of next year, and the entire project will be completed by 2018.

Commuters living in the northern and western parts of Singapore will be the first beneficiaries of extended sheltered walkways from MRT stations in a project costing $330 million.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will call a tender this quarter to build linkways around the first batch of 19 stations such as Ang Mo Kio, Khatib and Clementi.

The aim is to give shelter from the rain and sun to everyone walking within 400m of a station.

For instance, at Khatib station, a covered walkway from the bus stop in front of Block 624 at Yishun Ring Road will be extended across its junction with Yishun Avenue 2 to serve commuters exiting at that end of the station.

Mr Paul Fok, Group Director for Engineering at LTA, said the 'Walk2Ride' project kickstarted with a commuter asking for a covered walkway on a vacant piece of state land behind Lakeside station - one of hundreds of such requests the LTA gets yearly.

Under old guidelines, the LTA would build walkways from transport nodes like MRT stations to schools and healthcare facilities within 200m, and it could only build on road reserves.

At Lakeside, commuters were cutting across vacant land to get to Yuan Ching Secondary School and the housing estate next to it. The school was located about 350m away from Lakeside station - outside the stipulated 200m radius.

The LTA decided to build the walkway anyway, which meant it had to 'break a number of rules', Mr Fok noted. Apart from going beyond the 200m radius, it also had to seek permission from other government agencies to build on the land.

In all, the LTA plans to add 200km of linkways to the 46km already in place over six phases. Tenders will be called every quarter till the middle of next year, and the entire project will be completed by 2018.