KL-Singapore HSR terminus to be sited at Jurong Country Club

(Graphic by Land Transport Authority)

SINGAPORE (May 12): The Singapore government yesterday announced that it had earmarked the current site of Jurong Country Club (JCC) for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) terminus.

To minimise the HSR’s land take, all depots and stabling facilities will be located in Malaysia, theedgeproperty.com reported.

The Singapore Land Authority has gazetted the acquisition of the JCC site, under the Land Acquisition Act. The land will have to be returned to the government by November next year.

According to today.online.com, no alternative site will be provided for the club, and compensation will be based on the market value of the land, as at the date of acquisition.

The 67ha site is set to be redeveloped as a mixed-use development, with office, hotel, retail and entertainment facilities. Family-friendly recreation amenities could also be a possibility, given the waterfront location. The HSR terminus, which will largely be located underground, is expected to take up about 12ha of land.

This was the only site within Jurong East that was considered for the terminus, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) at a media briefing yesterday.

Size was one of the considerations, said URA CEO Ng Lang. “The HSR terminus, when it’s eventually built, is not going to exist in isolation. It will need supporting infrastructures and amenities, and having a sizeable piece of land around it will allow us to do that,” he said.

The today.online.com report said other factors included the site’s proximity to Jurong Gateway and the MRT lines. The estimated distance between the terminus and the Jurong East MRT station is 600m, said Chew Men Leong, chief executive of the Land Transport Authority.

To facilitate access, there will be multilevel passageways from the terminus to the surrounding developments, including the Jurong East MRT station.

By 2030, Jurong East will be served by four MRT lines — the existing North-South and East-West lines, and the new Jurong Region and Cross Island Lines.

Road infrastructures will also be expanded to accommodate the increase in human traffic.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 12, 2015.