SINGAPORE — The new Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre and Market, which is slated to open by the end of this year, will not only offer some of the lowest food prices in the neighbourhood, but also impose price ceilings on at least two basic meals sold at all its cooked-food stalls.

Applications for the 26 cooked-food stalls, six kiosks, 14 market stalls and 14 lock-up stalls are open from tomorrow (July 14) until Aug 3, social enterprise NTUC Foodfare, which will manage the new facility, said today (July 13).

Customers can expect to pay S$2.70 for a bowl of fishball noodles or S$4.80 for a plate of chicken nasi biryani — the lowest prices in the neighbourhood for the two dishes, according to a Foodfare survey.

The hawker centre will also feature Rice Garden, Foodfare’s community rice stall. Customers who are on public assistance or the ComCare scheme can buy a basic economy-rice meal, consisting of one meat dish and two vegetable dishes, for S$1.50. Senior citizens, students, national servicemen, NTUC Union members and the disabled will pay S$2 for the same dish.

Those applying to operate the stalls will have to go through an elaborate tender process. The rental bid submitted by an applicant for a cooked-food or market stall will make up only 40 per cent of the tender scorecard. The other 60 per cent will be based on quality, variety, selling price, and the tenderer’s experience and business concept. 

Shortlisted applicants will then have to participate in a food-tasting exercise that will be assessed by a tender-allocation panel, which includes grassroots representatives from Bukit Panjang. 

To help stall owners cut costs, Foodfare has several schemes in place, such as the Bulk Purchasing Opt-in Programme, which helps stall owners enjoy savings of up to 20 per cent on basic commodities such as rice, eggs and oil.

Mr Perry Ong, CEO of NTUC Foodfare Co-operative, said: “We aim to stretch every dollar of our fellow workers and their families in their everyday expenses on food and groceries.” 

Dr Teo Ho Pin, Mayor of North West District, who was present at the pre-launch of the hawker centre yesterday, hopes good hawkers will come to Bukit Panjang.

“We want to make hawker centres social centres. The Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre and Market ... is right in the middle of the neighbourhood, and I hope friends, family and neighbours will gather there to enjoy meals together,” said Dr Teo, who is also Member of Parliament for Bukit Panjang. 

The hawker centre and the market will open 12 hours and eight hours a day, respectively, for six days a week. 

A 24-year-old Nanyang Technological University student, who wanted to be known only as Mr Ng, said he was looking forward to the opening of the centre. “I’m very excited because I will  get more food choices. I’m usually very tired when I get home in the evenings, so having so many food choices in a hawker centre located two minutes away from my house is fantastic,” said Mr Ng, who lives near Pending LRT Station. 

Those interested in applying to operate a cooked-food stall may obtain the forms to do so at 10 Senoko South Road or at the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council.