SINGAPORE: The Building and Construction Authority, BCA, is doubling the funding that building owners can tap into to retrofit their buildings with barrier-free-accessibility (BFA) features.

This was announced at the start of the Friendly Built Environment Week and BCA’s Universal Design seminar.

Currently, the BCA's S$40 million Accessibility Fund provides owners of buildings built before 1990 40 per cent of funding to upgrade and provide basic accessibility features for people with limited mobilty.

To date, 19 building owners have used the fund to offset the cost of constructing basic accessibility features such as building access entrances via ramps or other technology, and an accessible toilet at the first storey.

With the revision, instead of covering 40 per cent of basic costs, BCA will now co-pay up to 80 per cent of the basic accessibility package. It will also cover 40 per cent funding for additional barrier-free-accessibility features beyond the basic features.

This brings the maximum amount that building owners can receive to S$300,000 per building as compared to S$150,000 per building previously, for retrofitting works to make a building barrier-free.

"We hope that with the enhancements to the Accessibility Fund, more owners of buildings built before 1990 will come forward to provide greater barrier-free accessibility to the buildings," said Dr John Keung, CEO of BCA.

The incentive is available with immediate effect, and is open to all private buildings, except for landed residential properties.

Speaking at the launch of BCA’s Universal Design seminar and the Friendly Built Environment Week, Dr Mohd Maliki Osman, Parliamentary Secretary for National Development, called on private building owners - especially those with buildings with high public access - to tap on the enhanced Accessibility Fund to make their buildings more friendly for all users.

"In our journey to make Singapore an inclusive society and endearing home for all, it is essential that our built environment be seamlessly connected, to allow our elderly, as well as people with different physical abilities, to stay integrated with the community," he said.

He went on to say that because the ultimate beneficiaries of a barrier-free built environment are, in fact, members of the public such as families with young children in prams or elderly in wheelchairs, it is important for them to have information about accessible buildings.

To that end, the BCA has launched a new online portal which includes ratings of buildings according to their level of friendliness and lists the types of accessible features and their locations in a building.

An example of a friendly building would be Paragon Shopping Centre in Orchard Road which is fitted with several accessible and universal design features from spacious walkways to wheelchair-friendly payphones.

Another is Friven & Co at Tanglin which used BCA funding to revamp the old Tanglin Road post office. Apart from ramps, which were already in place for workers at the former post office to haul bags of mail, the building's developers also put in place a carpark platform lift.

- CNA/sf