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Airbase expansion to have minimal impact on future Tengah town: Experts

SINGAPORE — Tengah Air Base’s expansion is unlikely to affect the appeal of the future Tengah town as it will take place away from the housing estate, said property analysts.

Visitors looking at the new Tengah masterplan model. TODAY file photo

Visitors looking at the new Tengah masterplan model. TODAY file photo

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SINGAPORE — Tengah Air Base’s expansion is unlikely to affect the appeal of the future Tengah town as it will take place away from the housing estate, said property analysts.

Its impact on the new town would be limited, as the area has “one of the lowest civilian population densities” among the planning areas in Singapore, said Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at SLP International.

The expansion’s impact on property prices in the new town would also be minimal, given the land is being clawed back for military purposes, and not the redevelopment of commercial or residential property, said Mr Chris Koh, director of property firm Chris Koh International.

The westward expansion of the airbase — away from residential developments — will mean aircraft noise having minimal impact on the living environment, analysts said.

While those whose relatives’ graves have to make way for the development will be disappointed, the prospect is not entirely unexpected, said International Property Advisor chief executive Ku Swee Yong. A 15-year burial limit for all graves has been instituted since November 1998.

The exhumation of graves will be the second-largest in scale in the last two decades, after the exhumation of 58,000 Christian graves and 68,000 Muslim graves at the Bidadari Cemetery from 2001 to 2006 to make way for housing.

More recently, 4,153 graves at the Bukit Brown Cemetery were exhumed, beginning October 2013, to make way for a dual four-lane road to link Adam Road, the MacRitchie Viaduct and Thomson Road via the cemetery.

But a possible partial closure of Lim Chu Kang Road may mean a detour for visitors travelling north to farms at Neo Tiew Road and the nature areas around Sungei Buloh, said Mr Ku.

“In future, if you want to go to Neo Tiew from Jurong, you probably have to drive a large round (to get there) ... travelling there will be more difficult now and this could have some impact on the business of restaurants and farms in the area,” he said. Valuation of the acquired plots should take into account recent investments by farmers that may be “wasted” because the land had to be prematurely returned to the Government, he added.

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