FORESHORES (AMENDMENT) BILL

3.48 p.m.

The Prime Minister: Mr Speaker, Sir. I beg to introduce a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to amend the Foreshores Ordinance (Chapter 246 of the Revised Edition)."

Bill read the First time.

Second Reading

Mr Speaker: Second Reading, what day?

The Prime Minister: Now, Sir,I lay upon the Table a Certificate of Urgency signed by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara in respect of the Foreshores (Amendment) Bill.

Certificate of Urgency handed in.

Mr Speaker: The Certificate is in order. Are typed copies of the Bill available for the use of Members?

The Prime Minister: Yes.

Typed copies of the Bill handed in to the Clerk and distributed to hon. Members.

Mr Speaker: Please proceed.

The Prime Minister: Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Members of the Assembly have been provided with copies of this Bill sometime early last week. With the rapidly expanding population, the growing pace of public development, the increasing tempo of housing and other public development, land is becoming a scarce and expensive commodity in Singapore. It is imperative, therefore, that all available land is put to the most advantageous use for the benefit of the people of Singapore. Swamp and waste land, therefore, has to be reclaimed. So too suitable stretches of foreshore along the coast of Singapore.

Sir, it is estimated that 25 per cent of the total area of the island of Singapore consists of waste or swamp land. I have left in the Library of this House a map of Singapore Island marking the areas where reclamation is planned. Most of them lie in the northern and western parts of Singapore where mangrove swamps could be reclaimed for either agricultural or industrial development.

There is an area of 168 acres being reclaimed at Sungei Poyan for agricultural purposes. Eventually some 900 acres at the Sungei Poyan/Sungei Berih area will be reclaimed by building a dam at Tanjong Sekopek over the estuary of the confluence with a control gate to prevent intrusion of sea water and to allow the land reclaimed to desalinate over a period of time.

The same method will be used in Phase II of this scheme to reclaim another 300 acres further south of the First Phase in Sungei Bayan/Sungei Pasir on the northern side of Tanjong Pasir Laba promontory. The total cost of this scheme is estimated at around $1.75 million.

In the Third Phase, a further 450 acres will be reclaimed in the Sungei Perak area, south of the Second Phase. Then further towards the centre of the island in the Kallang Basin, an area of 387 acres of mangrove swamps and land which go below high tide level is being reclaimed. A first 32 acres have already been established with surplus earth from Bukit Ho Swee. In Phase I, altogether some 200 acres will be reclaimed with surplus earth from Toa Payoh and Bukit Ho Swee. There is the problem of acquisition and resettlement in this area covering about 89 out of the 200 acres.

In the Second Phase, a further 187 acres will be reclaimed with surplus earth from Paya Lebar and Ulu Bedok. This project in Kallang Basin will Cost $15 million over a period of five years.

Then on the east coast, a pilot scheme for foreshore reclamation has been established, and 48 acres of land reclaimed at Bedok at a cost of about three-quarters of a million dollars. It has been successful, and the plan now is to reclaim a total area of 1,200 acres from Bedok to Rhu Cross, near the end of the Tanjong Rhu promontory, a distance of over six miles extending on an average of one-third of a mile out to sea along the shore line. Earth from Siglap Plain and the former Katong Catchment area will be used. The land reclaimed will be used for public purposes including an express highway from Bedok to Tanjong Rhu, public parks, housing, schools, and other public amenities. But it is proposed to set aside a portion of this land reclaimed for private development. In this way, a total cost of about $48 million, $33 million of which is estimated to be required for reclamation work and $15 million for a sea wall, will be in part recovered by sales to private developers for high quality development.

Sir, in the Tanjong Pagar harbour area, reclamation is proceeding on a plan to create 48 acres of land in the East Lagoon area.

Reclamation has also increased the area of Pulau Semulong, which is now a shipbuilding yard in the Jurong Industrial complex, and the area has been increased from 56 acres to 77 acres. Plans are also being finalised for reclamation of large portions of the shore line in the Jurong harbour area and also of Sungei Jurong.

Sir, in trying to achieve this aim of reclaiming more swamp and waste land and the foreshore to provide more land so badly needed in Singapore, the Government should not be hampered or hindered by elaborate and lengthy procedures with regard to reclamations, nor should it be faced with claims for alleged injurious affection and compensation from private landowners.

The Foreshores (Amendment) Bill has been drafted to revise the existing Foreshores Ordinance with a view to eliminating the elaborate and Iengthy procedure in connection with foreshore reclamation and in the assessment of claims for compensation in respect of such foreshore reclamation.

The main provision in this Bill is clause 4 which seeks to repeal section 7 of the Ordinance relating to compensation for interference with public or private rights in certain cases, and to substitute therefor a new section providing that there shall be no compensation as of right in respect of any land or any interest therein alleged to have been injuriously affected whether on account of loss of sea frontage or for any other reason by the execution of such reclamation works. However, where the execution of such reclamation works has directly caused damage to property, the Owner may appeal to the Minister for relief, and the Minister is empowered to order the payment of compensation or the execution of repairs as are necessary. The decision of the Minister is final.

In view of this new provision, clause 5 of the Bill repeals sections 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the Foreshores Ordinance which lay down lengthy and elaborate procedures for notice of foreshore re clamation to be given, procedure for determining any claims to compensation and the hearing of such claims. They will now no longer be necessary.

Another amendment is clause 3 which provides that the area of land for which the Minister is empowered to authorise reclamation would be increased from one acre outside port limits to ten acres and within port limits shall be extended from 5,000 square feet to five acres. The existing limitation is unrealistic under the pressure of our present land needs.

Two other clauses in the Bill need only brief mention. Clause 2 provides for permission for the erection of any building within 50 feet of any foreshore to be approved by the Director of Public Works. At present, the Ordinance limits such approval to within 50 feet of the bank of any port, river or channel.

Clause 6 is a procedural amendment to provide for only one insertion in the Gazette of the substance of proposed foreshore leases together with a description of the property to be leased. This makes for expeditiousness by obviating the necessity of having to publish in every issue of the Gazette for a period of three months.

Sir, there is urgency in proceeding with land reclamation in Singapore. Work which has been slowed down will be speeded up with the passage of this Bill. Because of expanding population, increasing industrial progress, higher standards of Public housing, educational, social and health buildings, and the need for more open spaces, we have to stretch our available land to its maximum.

I have today, Mr Speaker, Sir, introduced two other Bills - the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the Planning (Amendment) Bill - together with this one, and they are based, albeit in an imperfect way, on certain allied principles.

This Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, which has been referred to Select Committee, seeks to prevent the Government from having to pay enhanced compensation rates when acquiring land for public purposes when the reason for the enhanced value has been because of development in the area at public expense.

The Planning (Amendment) Hill provides that where there is to be an increase in density which will be allowed for building, a premium shall be paid. This premium will in part defray the extra burden on public expenditure as a result of a higher density of population being allowed requiring in consequence a higher expenditure on roads and the solution of traffic problems, the laying on of municipal and other services and other public expenditure to cater for more densely inhabited areas.

This Foreshores (Amendment) Bill seeks to prevent landowners from pursuing outmoded concepts of property rights which are no longer valid in the context of public development on public expenditure in present-day Singapore.

Mr Speaker, Sir, there is no foolproof way in which landowners can be deprived of benefit as a result of public expenditure, for public expenditure unavoidably and inevitably increases the value of land. Sometimes, as in the case of this Foreshores (Amendment) Bill, it is conceivable that the value of land may be diminished as a result of loss, for instance, of sea frontage. It could, under what we consider to be an archaic concept of property, be claimed that if one were accustomed to look across the main road to the sea one would have suffered an injurious affection if looking across the main road some six months later one views not the sea but a park, the sea having receded by a further third of a mile. But even in this case, it is more than probable that any decrease in value as a result of the loss of sea frontage will be offset by increased value that will result from the building of an express highway from Bedok to Rhu Cross, providing residents in the area with quicker access to the central business district of the city, and also an increase in land value generally in the area must result in the laying out of parks and other public buildings and amenities on the reclaimed land.

The object of these various amendments is to ensure, albeit imperfectly, that the increase in value of land, because of the increase in population and in development, should not lead to unjust or windfall gains by private landowners and speculators.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole Assembly.

Assembly immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [The Prime Minister].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.