SINGAPORE — Smokers puffing away and strolling down Orchard Road, or even huddling around rubbish bins along the thoroughfare, will be a sight of the past, come July 1 next year.

Businesses with their own smoking corners - there are 16 currently - will also have to convert these into non-smoking zones, although building owners are allowed to set up their own designated smoking areas, subject to certain conditions.

Watering holes in the area said it remains to be seen how much business will be affected, or whether this change would cause them to lose their smoking patrons.

Under the new regulations, announced by the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Friday (June 3), from July 1 next year, smoking will be permitted only at designated areas within the Orchard Road smoke-free precinct, which is bordered by Tanglin Road to the west, Dhoby Ghaut MRT station to the east, and Goodwood Park Hotel to the north.

There are currently five government-owned designated smoking areas in Orchard, which are located behind Somerset MRT station, at Cuppage Terrace, Far East Plaza, Orchard Towers and The Heeren.

While building owners, such as those of shopping malls, can construct their own designated smoking areas, they will have to follow the NEA's guidelines. For example, the area should not be more than 10 sqm in size, and should not be sited directly next to a main thoroughfare with high human traffic. It must also have signage and places for smokers to throw away their cigarette butts.

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Mr Derek Ho, NEA's director-general of environmental public health division, said the Orchard Road area was chosen as "it is an area of high human traffic, so naturally we want to ensure that the people who are using this place are protected from second-hand smoke".

During the one-year interim period before the ban kicks in, the agency said it will continue its engagement with the parties involved to ensure that "no smoking" signs are installed at the affected areas, and that bins with ashtrays to be replaced with ones without ashtrays.

An "advisory approach" will also be taken in the first three months after the no-smoking ban kicks in. Those caught smoking in public areas will receive only verbal warnings between July 1 and Sept 30, said the NEA.

But from Oct 1 next year, errant smokers can be fined up to S$1,000.

The NEA said it had been working with the Orchard Road Business Association (Orba) as well as other stakeholders since August 2015, on making the Orchard area smoke-free.

Orba executive director Steven Goh called the move a "step in the right direction", although he said that the association "understands and sympathises" with the inconvenience that the move may cause smokers.

Several establishments in Orchard Road which have smoking corners said that they needed time to study the steps they could take to help patrons who smoke once the ban kicks in.

Smokers whom TODAY spoke to had mixed reactions to the move to make Orchard Road smoke-free.

While some of them said they understood the need to separate smokers and non-smokers, others felt that making Orchard Road smoke-free will do little to curb the smoking problem.

While Mr Alfred Tan, a 27-year-old smoker, said he would not want to inconvenience others who do not smoke, he was not quite comfortable with the idea of putting smokers in a designated smoking area.

"It honestly doesn't feel good to be treated as though we are committing a crime or an obscene act and have to resort to hiding out in back alleys to smoke," said Mr Tan.

He noted that "having a lot of (smokers) congregating at one specific area will make it even worse, with all the smoke".

Ms Stacia Leow, 21, was one of those who welcomed the move to make Orchard Road smoke-free.

Ms Leow, who works at a hotel in Orchard, said having designated smoking areas might also lead to less littering in the area, since people "won't throw their cigarette butts all over the place".