Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam revealed that the completion date of Jurong Lake Gardens West – which is the first phase of development of Jurong Lake Gardens – has been delayed to 2018, reported Channel NewsAsia.
This comes after a public consultation exercise, which ended in May 2015, saw over 17,700 suggestions submitted.
Feedback included retaining existing nature and biodiversity hotspots, preserving the area’s tranquility, careful planning in order to mitigate potential traffic congestion and provision of ample basic amenities.
“There was a very strong preference to retain the natural ambience and what NParks (National Parks Board) is going to do is to have a lot more nature compared to what we already have today,” said Mr Tharman.
“(There will be) a lot more trees, a lot more water coming into the land.”
NParks said works on Jurong Lake Gardens are set to begin in early-2016.
Nonetheless, parts of Jurong Lake Gardens West will still be open to the public throughout the construction period to enable residents to continue with their recreational activities such as walking and jogging. There will also be continued access to the Japanese and Chinese Gardens.
Eventually, these two gardens will form the Jurong Lake Gardens Central. Mr Tharman noted that this phase of development will be progressively completed from 2020, together with Jurong Lake Gardens East.
Once completed, the entire Jurong Lake Gardens development will span 90 hectares, which is equivalent to 144 football fields.
Image: Artist’s impression of the future Jurong Lake Gardens.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
