UPGRADING works were already being planned at Mandalay Road in Balestier to alleviate the flooding problem there, and the PUB had drawn up a tender for the project which comes out today.
Unfortunately, this was too late for Indonesian student William Lim, 15, who unwittingly walked into a rain-swollen drain in the area on Wednesday, got swept away and drowned.
On Thursday, the national water agency said that plans had started earlier this year to widen the drains in the area, cover them and also raise the roads.
The project was scheduled to start in September after the tender was called, and would have been completed by the first quarter of next year.
Mr Choy Wai Kwong, the assistant director of PUB's catchment and waterways department, said the Mandalay Road stretch is the lowest point in the area. As a result, water rushes into the drains from the higher parts.
'When there is intense rain, the water will overflow,' he said at a briefing at the site.
