PARKING AREAS FOR HEAVY VEHICLES

PARKING AREAS FOR HEAVY VEHICLES

4.

Dr Fatimah Lateef asked the Minister for National Development (a) if there are sufficient parking areas for heavy vehicles where the owners live in HDB estates and the vehicles can only be parked at designated areas in HDB car parks; and (b) if areas for parking of heavy vehicles can be more strategically located as many are overcrowded due to high demand and often located quite a distance from residential areas where the owners live.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: There is presently an island-wide supply of about 29,360 parking lots to meet the overnight parking needs of 23,035 registered heavy vehicles. As such, there are more than enough heavy vehicle parking spaces. Many of the excess lots are located in workplaces like factories and at designated places outside HDB estates where heavy vehicles are supposed to be parked in the first place.

However, heavy vehicle drivers/owners prefer to park near their homes for greater convenience as they are using the heavy vehicles as a means of personal transport to get to and from work. This should not be encouraged as heavy vehicles driven through residential areas or parked close to residential premises create disamenities for residents. Besides being a traffic hazard, such vehicles generate noise and pollution. Hence, there are many complaints against allowing them to be parked near residential areas.

Both HDB and URA had, in the past, provided a number of heavy vehicle parks on the outskirts of some HDB estates. It is, however, becoming more and more difficult to provide such facilities near HDB estates because of competing needs for the limited land near HDB estates. Nevertheless, where suitable sites are available and where it is viable to do so, my Ministry will consider providing a few more of such temporary heavy vehicle parks on vacant sites away from residential areas, on a case-by-case basis; and on the understanding that these heavy vehicle parks will have to be removed when the land is needed for future development.

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