Tag Archives: SLA

In a city-state like Singapore, where land is scarce and every square inch matters, the preservation of colonial mansions is questionable. Recent news about ministers renting Colonial Mansions at Ridout Rd has highlighted to us how much space such relics of the past take. Colonial mansions, remnants of a bygone …

80,000 graves will have to be exhumed from the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery in order to expand Tengah Air Base. It will also acquire land occupied by fish farms and a nursery on Murai Farmway. Tengah Air Base is expanding to accommodate some of the assets and facilities from Paya Lebar Airbase.

Previously, due to complaints from the residents in the area about the noise generated by users of the facility since last year, SLA had ordered Nome United to close down their Youth Academy, while they decide on the new operating hours. After agreement from both SLA and Home United, HUFC may conduct youth training activities on the two football pitches from 7pm to 9pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. On weekends, Home may operate the football pitches from 9am to 6pm on Saturdays, and from 4pm to 7pm on Sundays, for training and community engagement programmes organised by the the club. These are in addition to the current operating hours of 9am to 7pm on weekdays, for which public bookings are allowed.

SLA recently acted on complaints by 5 residents who had demanded that the football academy pitches at the Home United Youth Football Academy (HYFA) be shut down, due to the noise it generated. Five people versus hundreds of kids who would have been given the opportunity to enjoy being kids and play on real football pitches, instead of on their mobile devices, and SLA bowed down to these five people. Apparently, the noise generated from people playing football is too noisy, so cannot concentrate on other more important things. SLA in the first place had slated the space for sports usage, now they backtracked and ordered the pitches to be closed after 7pm. Singapore wants a sports culture, but if authorities cannot even be firm against five residents (!), then how is sports culture going to be cultivated?

TRAVELLERS with backpacks and FairPrice plastic bags - that is a sight seen no more at the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. But people in search of a bite may return, if the authorities go ahead with plans to reopen the iconic building as an eating place. The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has approached architects and consultants this month to study whether former food stalls in the Keppel Road building can be reopened to serve the public.

The rustic Bottle Tree Park in Yishun will be closed next month as most businesses there said they were not able to come to an agreement on rent with the new operator, Chinese company Fullshare Group. Fullshare Group had put in a bid of $169,000 a month for the seven-hectare piece of land in Yishun, managed by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). This is more than double the $68,000 the existing operator had put in for the site and 10 times more than the rental which the existing operator has paid before. The park was first opened 10 years ago.

HDB buys land from the Government to develop public housing. Some claim that this is merely a transfer of funds from one pocket to another. But that doesn’t mean that the land therefore loses its value, simply because it is sold from one state agency to another. All land in land-scarce Singapore come with a certain value. Land may have been acquired, or it may have been reclaimed. But it commands a definite value, and all State land forms part of this country’s national reserves.