Building Covered Linkways to Connect HDB Blocks, Amenities and MRT Stations Beyond 400-metre Radius

Mr Ang Wei Neng asked the Acting Minister for Transport whether the Ministry will consider plans to build more covered linkways linking HDB blocks and key amenities to MRT stations beyond the 400m radius of the stations.

The Minister of State for Transport (Mr Baey Yam Keng) (for the Acting Minister for Transport): In 2024, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that it would build more covered linkways to connect Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations to designated Friendly Streets and some key amenities nearby that are within an 800-metre radius of the stations.

Mr Speaker: Mr Ang Wei Neng.

Mr Ang Wei Neng (West Coast-Jurong West): Thank you, Speaker. I thank the Minister of State for the reply. We are glad that the Ministry of Transport (MOT) already has the policy to build covered linkways to amenities within 800 metres of MRT stations. We hope MOT could also consider building covered linkways within 800 metres of an MRT station that would link to Housing and Development Board blocks. Because there are previous examples where LTA built the linkways according to the policy but served very few residents. So, we hope that LTA or MOT can stretch the policy a bit more, so that it would benefit more residents based on the human traffic flow to MRT stations.

Mr Baey Yam Keng: I thank the Member for his suggestion. Indeed, covered linkways are very popular and they do serve many residents and particularly commuters, so it is a priority of LTA to link commuters to major transport nodes.

In evaluating proposals, LTA will look at usage patterns – as the Member said, how residents commute within that radius. But we also need to look at site constraints and also safety requirements. We would definitely prioritise walkways that connect large numbers of commuters to major public destinations, and these would primarily include walkways which connects transport nodes and major amenities. We definitely will take in feedback and requests from the community and pay special attention to the needs of our more vulnerable commuters.