Tengah

📷: An extract from the 1885 map of Singapore, showing location of Teng Chu Kang and the adjacent tributary (NAS)

While Tengah means ‘centre’ in Malay, Tengah is nowhere around the middle of Singapore.

In the 1850s, Tengah was a ‘chu kang’, a term that referred to gambir and pepper farms located around a river. Each ‘chu kang’ was led by a ‘kang chu’ (which refers to “Master of the River” in Teochew). It was said that in the 1853, a ‘kang chu’ named Teng-Ah Tong (colloquially known as “Teng-ah”) was given a concession to farm the land bounded by present-day Choa Chu Kang to the northeast, and Jurong East and West to the south. The land was adjacent to an un-named tributary of the Kranji River. From there, Tengah was formed.

Dubbed as the new “Forest Town”, the new Tengah estate will be HDB’s 24th and newest town. When fully developed, it will be about three quarters the size of Punggol, and can accommodate a total of 42,000 new homes in all of its five districts.

The five residential districts – Plantation, Garden, Park, Brickland, and Forest Hill – will feature forest and nature themes strongly in their design and planning, allowing residents to get up close with nature. For instance, the Plantation District, the first to be built, will have a community farmway running through its housing precincts. There will be space dedicated for community gardening and urban farming, and activities such as sales of organic produce may also be held.

As “going green” is a central concept of the new Tengah HDB town, Tengah will be Singapore’s first car-free town centre. All roads in Tengah will have dedicated walking and cycling paths on both sides of the road. The heart of Tengah town will also feature a large 20 hectares central park – about the size of Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West – surrounded by ponds and canals, as well as an amphitheatre. There will be a 100m-wide, 5km-long forest corridor linking it to the surrounding green network between the western and central catchment areas.

Also set to be Singapore’s first-ever ‘Smart HDB Town’, Tengah residential areas will host smart features such as utilities monitoring systems which will be introduced across the whole neighbourhood.

In terms of connectivity, Tengah will house a depot for the upcoming Jurong Region Line, and the line will connect areas such as the Jurong Innovation District and the Jurong Lake District. While the development of new towns can take almost a decade, they speak of Singapore’s continued commitment to future planning and meeting the evolving needs of her citizens.

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