POPULATION GROWTH

POPULATION GROWTH:

(Adequacy of infrastructure and amenities): 7.

Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether the current infrastructure and amenities are adequate to meet the needs of our increasing population; and (b) whether reviews are being conducted to assess the impact of the current population growth on our urban living environment.

8.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo asked the Minister for National Development in light of our increasing population and housing demand where more land parcels are released for housing developments, what are the considerations given to ensure adequacy of supporting infrastructure to mitigate overcrowding and congestion and in the provision of communal and open spaces, transport, traffic flow and services.

The Senior Minister of State for National Development (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos. 7 and 8, please?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: Singapore has a forward-looking and comprehensive land

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use planning system. Every 10 years, we review and formulate a Concept Plan to plan for and safeguard sufficient land to meet the future needs of our growing population and economy over a horizon of 40 to 50 years. This translates into the more detailed Master Plan that guides our land use over a horizon of 10 to 15 years.

One of our key objectives in land use planning is to ensure that we can set aside sufficient land to meet housing needs as well as to offer a range of housing options to cater to Singaporeans with different income levels.

As part of planning for a larger population, we will also provide land for sufficient supporting facilities and infrastructure such as healthcare facilities, schools, parks and transport infrastructure. For instance, we will create an additional 900 ha of parkland and triple our park connectors by 2020. Major improvements will also be made to our transportation network. LTA will build new lines and extensions such as the Circle Line, Downtown Line and Tuas Extension, amongst others, which will increase our rail network from 148 km to 278 km by 2020. We will also plan for higher density housing and commercial uses around these transport nodes to provide greater connectivity to our population.

We have embarked on the Concept Plan 2011 Review in July 2009, and as part of the review, we will consult the public and seek their feedback on how we can optimise the use of our limited land and make Singapore our best home. When completed, the 2011 Concept Plan will contain plans and strategies for Singapore's future development, and ensure that our future growth is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast): Mr Speaker, I would like to ask two supplementary questions. One is with

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regard to the upgrading of the existing infrastructure for increased capacity. As land parcels are being used for housing, can the Senior Minister of State share with us, in terms of the more mature estate, what is being done with regard to the upgrading of the existing road infrastructures for the increased density? And the second question is, what are the measures that are being taken to track conducive living environment with regard to the strain on the amenities, as there is increased density in these more mature estates?

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: With regard to the first question, what we have done is to make sure that additional infrastructure is set aside when we release parcels. In our planning system, we have taken into consideration the planned residential area. When new parcels of land are being released, sufficient infrastructure, including roads as well as recreational needs, have already been provided for in the area. That goes for new estates as well as mature estates.

On the second question, I think that is something for LTA to be concerned with to look at how traffic conditions are being affected by development. But our working relationship is such that this norm would be reviewed regularly, as what we are doing now in Concept Plan 2011. It is to review the planning norms with various Government agencies, so that new pattern, whether it is social pattern or vehicular pattern, can be taken into consideration in our planning horizons as well as planning parameters. So, in the case of mature towns, like Tampines, we have considered such additional requirements. And when we do release new plots of lands for development, we will again liaise with the relevant Government agencies to review the needs that will come along with such parcels.

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Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim (Marine Parade): Sir, I have two supplementary questions. I have met quite a number of residents who have shared with me their surprise on the increase in population and their concern about the adequacy of the infrastructure and amenities to meet the current needs. I have two questions for the Senior Minister of State. Firstly, I would like to know if there is evidence to show that due to the increase in the population, there are stress points with regard to the demand and the usage of our infrastructure and amenities, such as parks, shopping centres, carparks and other transportation modes, as well as in the housing market.

Secondly, in view of the increase in the population, I am just wondering whether the Ministry would consider bringing forward its plan to remake our heartland, particularly the HDB mature estates, with regard to the infrastructure as well as amenities, which I feel could be outdated at this point in time, to meet the current needs of the population.

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for two very substantive supplementary questions, which probably warrant two separate Questions by themselves. But just to take the first question, I think in our planning for an increased population, we do as much as possible look into the needs as well. There is a reason for us planning very aggressively to expand our parks, for example, as well as park connectors, which have proven to be very popular with Singaporeans. In our plan up to 2020, we will be increasing our park connectors three folds from what we have today. Not many Singaporeans know that we actually have a 100 km of park connectors, which means you can already do two marathons over different routes in Singapore. And we intend to increase that three times to 300 km. Out of that, 150 will be a round-island route, which means that it will be connected. I think this is an

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example of how creative use of land has served us very well. It started off by us looking at land reserve, such as reserve for canals that is not well utilised, how we can make good use of such land to create very beautiful environment for Singaporeans. Our plans to work with PUB's Active Beautiful and Clean Water, for example, will again create many beautiful recreational options for Singaporeans. When it comes to other infrastructures like shopping centres, residential buildings, that is already in the plan. We do have cases where short-term demands may not be easily matched. It is very hard to predict demand accurately, especially when you look at supply of commercial as well as residential buildings, there is always a lead time involved. We will do our best to try to reduce the volatility involved in the market. It is not possible to predict demand accurately, because we can never foresee conditions that may affect Singapore, such as the dip of demand in the last 18 months. In our planning horizon, we plan for a certain population. Our land sales system will allow us to respond to market quickly. We have two systems, whether it is a confirmed land sale or reserved land sale, that will actually allow property players to call for supply of land as they think the market will require.

On the second question about bringing forward the revitalisation or remaking of heartland, that is something that we have been doing all the time. For example, lift upgrading programme is one that we talked a lot about. That is our current focus, because we know that many Singaporeans are looking forward to that, with an ageing population, especially many elderly residents have been asking for lift access. So that is really our main focus at the moment. But we have been undertaking home improvement programme as well as neighbourhood renewal programme. That is to continuously remake and rejuvenate our

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housing estates to make them more suitable for our current population.