MP meets Serangoon Gardens residents on dormitory decision
By Ryan Huang, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 04 October 2008 2215 hrs

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SINGAPORE: A day after the government gives the green light for a foreign workers' dormitory in the Serangoon Gardens estate, concerned residents met their Member of Parliament.

While some are still unhappy about the plan, others are coming to terms with it.

MP for Aljunied GRC, Lim Hwee Hua, went door to door to provide details and answer questions from concerned residents who live across from the planned dormitory.

One of the highlights was a newsletter with the full details of the proposal.

Grassroots leaders distributed the newsletter within a day of the government making its decision.

"I'm very impressed, not only by her efficiency but by the care and effort by Mrs Lim to make sure that her residents of her constituency are informed as fast and as much as possible," said a resident.

"Our fears, our anxieties have more or less cleared. We are happier and we are more settled," said another.

Most of the residents that Mrs Lim spoke to expressed security concerns.

Addressing this, she said the workers would come mainly from the manufacturing sector and not the construction industry as some had thought.

This would mean there could be a higher proportion of female workers housed there.

But it will be left to the dormitory operator to decide if this would be a mixed dormitory.

Mrs Lim also told residents that dormitory operators will be asked to consider having chartered buses to ferry workers to popular destinations so they would not congregate within the estate.

Mrs Lim said: "A lot of them, in the absence of information, started imagining the worst-case scenario. The common thread running through most of the responses is that we need to monitor."

A new road stretching some 400 metres will be built to serve as the only access point for the dormitory, away from the Serangoon Gardens estate.

The road is connected to the Central Expressway and Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

However, this could raise concerns from a different set of residents - those living around Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

Mrs Lim will meet these residents on Sunday.

- CNA/ir