New Hawker Centres

Residents in Bukit Panjang town have been asking for a hawker centre for the past 15 years.

“We are one of the few towns that still do not have a hawker centre. We have been making repeated requests for one over the years,” said Dr Teo Ho Pin, who has served in the area since 1997.

The chorus of requests, he added, became louder in the past five years as food prices spiralled and the population of the town grew. The number of residents in Bukit Panjang town has doubled in 15 years to about 150,000, he said.

hawker Centre

Hawker Centre- Punggol

“Residents all say they want more variety and more affordable food,” said Dr Teo, who added that he knows a zhi char stall tenant in a coffee shop who pays $22,000 a month in rent.

“At the end of the day, my residents were all paying more for meals. Stall holders had to charge high prices to pay rent,” he said, calling such rents, which average $5,000 a month, “ridiculous”.

Dr Teo, who is current MP for Bukit Panjang SMC, is hoping that the new hawker centre will help to set a new benchmark for food prices in the area. It will be completed within three years, with construction starting in the second half of the year.

Bukit Panjang is one of seven towns which will be getting new hawker centres within the next five years.

Bukit Panjang will also get a new wet market.

Last October, the Government announced that it would be building 10 new hawker centres over the next decade, mostly in new housing estates where residents’ needs are not being met.

A hawker centre was last built 26 years ago. The Government then stopped building and shifted its focus to upgrading and rejuvenating existing ones.

There are 107 government-owned hawker centres and wet markets in Singapore, with 15,000 stalls in all.

A new hawker centre will also come up in Punggol where MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC Janil Puthucheary has received at least 10 requests a week for this facility.

“Punggol is developing rapidly and there will be a lot of people moving here over the next five years. A hawker centre is essential,” he said, adding that he will ask the Government to consider building a wet market too.

“It is something residents clearly want.”

The other five towns earmarked for hawker centres over the next five years are Yishun, Pasir Ris, Jurong West, Woodlands and Tampines.

Their MPs – such as Mr Lawrence Wong (West Coast GRC), Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang GRC) and Associate Professor Muhammad Faisal Ibrahim (Nee Soon GRC) – all said residents have asked for the centres.

Eighteen residents in the seven towns interviewed said they are happy with the changes to come.

Tampines resident George Lim, 60, said it is inconvenient that there is no hawker centre near his home. He is also bored with the food available now and added that hawker centres are places for social bonding.

“It also prevents food courts from monopolising the market and increasing prices of dishes,” said the project coordinator at an engineering company.

Housewife Yu Zheng, 52, is looking forward to the wet market in Bukit Panjang. “There will be more variety and convenience. Right now, there are too many people shopping at the same market which can be quite frustrating because the food runs out very quickly,” she said.

A Jurong West resident, police officer Shamsul Bahari Jauharmi, 38, now drives 10 to 15 minutes to eateries nearby for a wider range of halal food.

“There needs to be more Muslim food here,” he said, adding that he also wants a wet market in the area as his mother-in-law has to travel 15 minutes by bus to shop at one.

His only concern is the possibility of improper disposal of waste at the new hawker centre and noisy delivery trucks in the wee hours of the morning.

“But, overall, having a new hawker centre is good. It can also push up property prices in the area,” he said with a chuckle.

Source: Straits Times 24th April 2012

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