A subway tunnel under Singapore’s rainforest? No way!

[Siryn]

A subway tunnel under Singapore’s rainforest? No way, say activists

PUBLISHED : Friday, 26 February, 2016, 1:58pm
UPDATED : Friday, 26 February, 2016, 1:58pm

Reuters in Singapore

A Crimson Sunbird standing on a tree branch in Singapore. Photo: AFP

A plan to build a subway tunnel under Singapore’s largest patch of primary rainforest has drawn sharp protests from environmental groups and activists who say it could irreversibly damage the habitats of hundreds of plant and animal species.

They are appealing to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to re-route the 50km Cross Island Line around the Central Catchment Nature Reserve near the MacRitchie Reservoir, rather than through it.

The city-state is spending billions of dollars to upgrade its subway system to cope with a rising population in one of the most densely populated countries, which penalises car ownership through hefty taxes.

But the LTA’s plan is not going down well with nature-lovers, who are organising guided walks around the reserve, exhibitions and talks, and producing music videos to lobby for the route to be changed.

An online petition supporting the re-routing of the line away from the nature reserve has received over 7,790 signatures.


“A lot of our forests have already been lost to development and we can’t afford to lose much more of them because there’s so little left,” said Sankar Ananthanarayanan, co-founder of the Herpetological Society and a life sciences university student.

A network of freshwater streams in the reserve supports a rich diversity of flora and fauna, including more than 1,000 species of flowering plants and over 500 species of animals.

READ MORE: Singapore air worsens as smoke billows in from Indonesia forest fires

LTA Chief Executive Chew Men Leong said in a letter in The Straits Times this week that taking the new line around the reserve would cost an extra S$2 billion (US$1.4 billion) to build.

Industry experts estimate the overall cost could amount could be as much as S$40.7 billion.

He said the government was studying both options for the underground route but had not yet made a decision.

 

[frenchbriefs]

40.7 billion just for a mrt line 20km long wtf???????this is more expensive than any national project in the world even the 3 gorges dam and the suez canal.

 

[zhihau]

Tearing apart Nature to build billion-dollar parks... Dafug?!

 

[frenchbriefs]

these mofos are crazy!!!do they know how many companies 40 billion can buy?40 billion can nearly buy 2/3rds of a new singtel and distribute the 4 bil profit to sinkies every year!!!!!

or build another 40 new blocks of hdb flats and distribute it to sinkies at cost price 100k each!!!!!that will crash the hdb market by at least 20 percent!!!!

 

[johnny333]

It's only taxpayers money & they don't have to worry about the GE.

They & their cronies are probably salivating at all of the $$$...$$$ that they can skim off.

 

[cocobobo]

As a comparison new york is constructing a deep 8km train tunnel linking manhattan to staten island at a cost below us2b.

 

[looneytan]

Common la, how much is New York major salary

 

[fupikee]

40.7 billion just for a mrt line 20km long wtf???????this is more expensive than any national project in the world even the 3 gorges dam and the suez canal.

...just ask, who will be the first to benefit from such a massive expenditure ???

.....crony business as usual...