Punggol district first to trial smart technologies

SINGAPORE — From car parks to waste management, one of the seven new waterfront housing districts in Punggol will be the first public housing district here to test smart technologies.

Punggol Northshore will be the next district to be developed in the town, after plans for Matilda district were announced last year. It will have about 6,000 flats, with the first project to be launched next year, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said yesterday when it unveiled plans for three housing projects around the island.

Solar panels will sit atop Punggol Northshore blocks. They will also be directly connected to a Light Rail Transit station, with sheltered access to the waterfront.

Smart technologies will enhance the planning and maintenance of HDB estates for a more liveable and efficient environment, the agency said.

Besides lights equipped with sensors in common areas, the car parks in Punggol Northshore will have an intelligent parking demand monitoring system that automatically increases available lots for visitors during non-peak hours and decreases them in the evening when residents with season parking return home.

A pneumatic waste conveyance system — automated waste collection that uses a vacuum-type underground pipe network to collect household waste — will come with sensors to monitor waste disposal patterns. The data to be collected have yet to be decided on, but the aim is to optimise the deployment of waste-collection resources.

The smart waste management system will also be deployed in the first housing precincts of Bidadari and Tampines North, said the HDB.

The Bidadari project, to be launched next year, will be in Alkaff neighbourhood. It will feature two malls, one with an underpass linking residents to Alkaff Lake and Bidadari Park. Roof gardens and community terraces will be built on top of multi-storey car parks and selected residential blocks, with views of the lake and park.

Over in Tampines North, envisioned as a “green shoot” of Tampines town, its first public housing project comprising 1,500 flats will be launched in November. The project’s blocks will have undulating facades resembling a canyon’s rock walls and its low-rise two-storey car parks will have landscaped rooftops to provide “doorstep greenery” to residents. “Community living rooms” with lush greenery and landscaping will be located at the ground level of each block, with seats for residents to get together and mingle, said the HDB.

The projects — which follow broad master plans for Bidadari and Tampines North announced last year and that for the next phase of Punggol’s development announced in 2012 — aimed for distinctive districts and neighbourhoods, as well as seamless connectivity to transportation networks, the HDB said.