UNDERGROUND LINKWAY

UNDERGROUND LINKWAY

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(City Hall MRT Station to Capitol Building): **

32.

Mr Teo Siong Seng asked the Minister for National Development whether his Ministry will bring forward the plan to build an underground walkway linking City Hall MRT Station to the Capitol Building to prevent any road accident that may arise from MRT commuters dashing across North Bridge Road especially on rainy days.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Singapore is planned as an accessible and pedestrian-friendly city with an extensive network of both covered and underground walkways. We have planned for underground walkways and links around MRT stations, especially those within the city centre, to provide seamless, direct and convenient access from the MRT stations to the basement levels of surrounding developments.

This includes the Bras Basah and City Hall area. As part of the redevelopment of the Capitol Building/Capitol Theatre site, an underground link below North Bridge Road will be built to connect the site to the City Hall MRT station.

The tender for this site has recently closed and is currently under assessment. The site is scheduled to be awarded by November this year, following which the successful

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tenderer can initiate development of the underground link. In the meantime, pedestrians can continue to get across North Bridge Road by using the two pedestrian crossings at the road junctions nearby.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority will continue to study ways to expand our underground pedestrian networks to achieve greater connectivity and improve the overall experience for pedestrians.