Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Tanjong Pagar heritage site should be saved

Palmer House, part of the Bestway Building and remnants of a Parsi mausoleum will be making way for the future Prince Edward MRT Station and a new Shenton Way bus terminal.

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp
Sandra Alison Jayandran

Palmer House, part of the Bestway Building and remnants of a Parsi mausoleum will be making way for the future Prince Edward MRT Station and a new Shenton Way bus terminal.

I question the location of both the station and the terminal. There is an existing bus terminal that does the job adequately, and Tanjong Pagar MRT Station now serves the offices in the area.

I find it baffling that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the National Heritage Board (NHB) say that heritage considerations have been woven into the design of the station.

The MRT works will skirt the Fook Tet Soo Khek Temple (1844), the Masjid Haji Muhammad Salleh (1902) and the 1866 Keramat Habib Noh shrine (1866), so why sacrifice the other landmarks: Palmer House, Bestway Building and the Parsi graves?

I wonder if the MRT station can be located in a different area. It should not be built there in haste, as this is a significant heritage site, whose history we can never reclaim once the place is gone.

I hope the URA and the NHB can work with the Land Transport Authority to find an alternative site for the station.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.