SHELTERED WALKWAYS

Mr Tay Beng Chuan asked the Minister for Communications and Information Technology whether his Ministry will consider building sheltered walkways linking the major private residential estates and large commercial buildings in the Central Business District with MRT stations and bus shelters like those provided in HDB estates so as to encourage more Singaporeans to make full use of public transport and to help the national effort in easing the increasing traffic congestion on our roads and in conserving energy.

Mr Yeo Cheow Tong: The building of sheltered walkways to commuter facilities such as MRT stations, bus interchanges and bus shelters is a shared national responsibility between the Government, town councils and private developers.

Since 1998, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has spent $18.6 million constructing covered walkways to provide better linkages to the MRT stations and bus interchanges. This is intended to encourage commuters to use our public transport system. Through these projects, LTA has demonstrated the attractiveness of such an infrastructure provision.

LTA will continue to focus on providing sheltered walkways at the major transport nodes, namely MRT/LRT stations and bus interchanges. For this financial year (FY2000), it will be spending about $6 million on these projects.

Town Councils will continue with their efforts to build more sheltered walkways in the residential estates. We understand that the Ministry of National Development is also exploring the provision of sheltered walkways to link private estates to commuter facilities in the proposed upgrading programme for private estates.

In the city area, LTA works closely with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and other authorities on the planning and provision of commuter facilities, taking into consideration motorists' and pedestrians' needs, site constraints and the need to preserve the city landscape.

The MRT stations in the city area are usually underground to optimise land use. Where possible, LTA will ensure that underground linkages are provided to link the MRT stations to the key developments in the vicinity of the stations. As a result, most of the major developments next to MRT stations in the city have direct underground access to the stations, eg, developments around the Raffles City and Orchard Stations. Such underground linkages are planned when the stations are designed and if a station is built before adjacent development takes place, knock-out panels will be provided within the station box so as to facilitate easy linkage in the future.

At the ground level, many streets are lined with arcaded walkway, traditionally called 'five-foot way'. Such walkways are provided by developers when they construct their commercial buildings. These walkways already provide good shelter for pedestrians and commuters making their way to the bus stops.