9-year-old’s design picked for Tower Transit double-decker bus

SINGAPORE — Nine-year-old Variel Ng’s drawing has been turned into a bus wrap for a Tower Transit double-decker bus, after she won an art competition held at the new transport company’s carnival last year.

The bus was unveiled on Wednesday (March 2) at the Bulim Bus Depot, where Variel saw her larger-than-life artwork for the first time. The bus will be used for driver training between Jurong Point and Bulim Bus Depot within the month.

Variel’s drawing was chosen from more than 100 entries in the competition, which was held at Tower Transit’s carnival, called “A Bulim Carnival Day”, on Dec 6. But the art enthusiast almost did not take part.

“We didn’t know there was an art competition, but her brother is a bus fan, and actually he had pre-registered himself online. That’s why we actually got to attend the Bulim Carnival that day,” said Variel’s mother Lee Kwai Yoke.

“She was actually looking around and there was a lady in a Tower Transit T-shirt giving out the papers, and she was happy to see there was a competition here. So she actually sat down and participated in it. Really, (it was) to her surprise when Tower Transit called her (to say) she’d won the grand prize,” she added.

Tower Transit Singapore’s managing director, Andrew Bujtor, said Variel’s entry stood out because it is bright, colourful and represents “all the good things about Singapore”.

“It’s got some fantastic landmarks on there. It represents Singapore’s multi-culturalism, with the four multi-racial friends standing together holding hands. It also covers certain aspects that we focus on in our own service delivery - which is special needs passengers, the elderly, the less-abled - which is shown on the back of Variel’s design as well. So it stood out from a pack of really fantastic submissions and that’s why we chose her,” he said. CHANNEL NEWSASIA