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Land-scarce Singapore is already storing some of its military munitions in this way. And work is underway on similar storage facilities for crude oil and oil products.
Now, the Government wants to look at building power stations, warehouses, incineration plants, airport logistics centres and reservoirs all below ground.
Industrial landlord Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) last Friday called a tender for a "underground rock cavern usage feasibility study" to see how subterranean grottos could be used to maximise land use.
Among other things, the winning consultant will have to study the costs and the use of underground caverns in other countries. It will also advise JTC on the possible environmental and health issues, such as pollution, radiation and damage to existing buildings and infrastructure.
Last July, TODAY broke the story of how government agencies including the JTC were exploring the feasibility of creating caverns for living.
Professor Zhao Jian, who led early feasibility studies on cavern development in Singapore, had said then that the potential for space underground was "almost limitless" and was "particularly useful for any facilities that are not desirable at surface level, for example, sewage treatment plants".
The study now up for tender will look merely at feasibility and not sites, a JTC spokeswoman told the Business Times.
However, potential sites could be areas with deposits of igneous rock, such as granite, in the central, northern and northeastern areas of the island.
A 1995 paper by Nanyang Technological University researchers including Prof Zhao, in the Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology, concluded that the Bukit Timah granite which forms one-third of the surface area of Singapore had good potential for underground cavern construction.
The tender closes June 6, and the consultant is expected to work with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and the Energy Market Authority, among others.
Other cavern projects:
• In March, the Ministry of Defence opened caverns under the disused Mandai Quarry to store ammunition such as bullets, bombs and missiles. The warehouse caverns each about the size of six basketball courts were blasted out of solid granite underneath the quarry, freeing up surface land the size of Pasir Ris town.
• The JTC is constructing the $2-billion Jurong Rock Cavern beneath Jurong Island, for use by petrochemical companies. The first caverns under Phase 1 should begin operations in 2010.
• A plan in the late 1990s to construct a Science City, a mixed-use commercial project, under Science Park 2 was derailed by cost factors. - TODAY/ar
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