Activists concerned over more damage to Central Catchment Nature Reserve
February 26, 2016
ricky l5 seconds ago
Let us assume that the 1.8 km stretch of roads has 1,000 trees.
For 1,000 trees cost us $2 billion - it means 1 tree cost us $2 million.
Is the tree make up of Gold or Diamond - costing a whooping $2 million per tree.
$2 billion is the taxpayer money and it is a very big sum of money.
Let us look at China.
China is going through an Economic Restructuring, but their Economy is suffering a setback and need alot of money - billions of dollars to defend their currency and prop up their Economy so that their people continue to have jobs.
If China did not have billions and trillions of financial reserve to defend their Economy, do you think China can sustain the Economic setback? Many people will go out of jobs, and there will be social unrest and riot.
In Singapore, we are a small Economy and money is a valuable asset - to protect Singapore to buffer from Economic Shock that the whole World is going through now - and wasting it on some trees ----- are we responsible?
Are we trivialing the hard-earned money and waste it on some trees? And worst still, chase away many house owners and business by skirting?
$2 billion can :-
(1) Build 10,000 houses for Singaporeans
(2) Build 20 Desalination plants to provide fresh waters to 6 million Singaporeans
(3) Finance social welfare for 166,667 low-income household.
(4) Finance automation for 10,000 SMEs to create high-value jobs for Singaporeans
(5) Finance 20,000 PMEs jobs for Singaporeans
etc etc.
Priority should be :-
(1) Human first
(2) Animal second
(3) Trees third
If many Singaporeans got retrenched and still not able to find jobs - do you think it is sound to waste $2 billion on some trees?
ricky l5 seconds ago
Actually there are some simple solutions to the problem :-
(1) Nature group work with LTA to continue to come up with solutions to mitigate the impact without spending additional $2 billion. Fine-tune it as work progress.
(2) LTA accept all solutions from the nature group - but nature group source for $2 billion to fund their skirting project.
(3) Consider the LTA solutions that have already been mitigated with the nature groups - that have moderate impact. After the MRT has been constructed, consider re-forestation to repair the damage part. Probably re-forestation cost $1 million (rather than $2 billion). $1 million is already a large sum of money to plant trees.
ricky l6 seconds ago
What the heck - $2 billion can fund ERP next-gen 4 times over - covering the whole Country.
Now nature group want to spend it for some trees.
ricky l5 seconds ago
Simple things - if nature group think $2 billion is nothing, can earn easily - then let the nature group go to source this amount of money ---- let see they can raise it or not.
ricky l1 minute ago
During the 1997-1998 Asian Financial Crisis - Singapore and other Asean Countries saw a 70% value wipe off from the stock market, currency depreciated alot as against US$ and Singapore (including Asean Countries) are facing global currency speculative attacks.
All ASEAN countries succumb to the crisis and many have to borrow from IMF (under very stringent measures) to save their Economy.
Singapore, luckily have sufficient financial reserves to survive by fighting back the currency speculators attack and prop up our Economy - spending billions of dollars.
Now this nature groups say $2 billion not important - can easily waste it.
Now the whole region is facing similar Economic Situation that we are facing in 1997-1998 (though the worst scenario has not manifested yet).
Can the nature group pledge the million dollar trees - to give us back the $2 billion - if Singapore see another financial crisis coming?
Hta htoo4 hours ago
ricky l isn't concerned that trees provide food and habitat for some wildlife but trees also provides oxygen, clean the air and combat climate change.........heeee
ricky l29 seconds ago
Millions of trees have been burned down in Indonesia and hundred and thousands of hectares of land has been cleared of forest. Did anyone in Indonesia deprive of oxygen and die?
I am not saying what Indonesia did in killing so many trees is correct.
Singapore is only doing some work for 1.8 km with all the necessary mitigation efforts thrown in --- and this people here say that Singaporeans will die from lack of oxygen ---- make sense or not? $2 billion in exchange for a few trees.
Tell the whole world ---- does it make sense or not?
It is completely out of proportion. The argument just cannot sell.
ricky l5 seconds ago
If nature group pay $2 billion, I think Indonesia will sell you millions of trees and let you plant the trees all over the reserves.
ricky l15 seconds ago
And nature group will have all sorts of trees you want - short, tall, fat, thin, pretty, ugly.
ricky l5 seconds ago
And the nature group will come with trees that are gold-plated, solid gold, plantinum plated or embedded with diamonds, rubies, emerald, pearl or all sorts of expensive stones and jewelleries trees - with $2 billion to be planted in the reserves.
The trees can provide you with oxygen, cowdung, fertilisers and manure spice with gold fillings with $2 billion.
ricky l1 minute ago
Cross Island Line: Linking people to jobs
Paranomic view of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve from Jelutong Tower.
Paranomic view of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve from Jelutong Tower.ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
PUBLISHED FEB 24, 2016, 5:00 AM SGT
FACEBOOK101TWITTERWHATSAPPEMAIL
Christopher Tan Senior Transport Correspondent
The Cross Island Line, announced in January 2013, is a 50km MRT line stretching from Pasir Ris in the north-east to Jurong in the west.
According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority Master Plan 2014, the line will link a fast-growing residential district in the north-east to Singapore's largest industrial hub in the west.
As it goes westwards, it will pass through Loyang, Punggol, Hougang and Ang Mo Kio before reaching Sin Ming. From there, it will go towards Bukit Timah, Clementi and West Coast before terminating at the Jurong Industrial Estate.
Besides linking residents to jobs, the line will serve the upcoming "creative cluster and learning corridor" in Punggol, which will include the Singapore Institute of Technology's new campus.
The line is also part of an overall strategy to build some redundancy into the rail network to mitigate the impact of disruptions.
Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport deputy chairman Ang Hin Kee, who is also an Ang Mo Kio GRC MP, said: "People in Ang Mo Kio, for example, are served only by the North-South Line. If there are repairs or maintenance work on that line, they have no other rail option."
The Cross Island Line is also likely to stop at the proposed terminus of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail line in Jurong East.
When completed in 2030, it will facilitate access to Singapore's seaport, which will move to Tuas by then. The line will provide relief to the already heavily used 57km East-West Line.
The Punggol-Pasir Ris stretch of the Cross Island Line will also form the first leg of the North Shore Line - a yet-to-be announced MRT line that links Pasir Ris to Woodlands.
According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), residents in Punggol will be able to travel to Pasir Ris in 10 to 15 minutes, compared with a 40-minute bus ride today.
The project will be unlike current MRT lines. For instance, trains are likely to have more carriages - eight cars each, or more. Current lines have three- to six-car trains. LTA declined to confirm this, saying only that the Cross Island Line is a "heavy-load" system.
The Straits Times understands the line will be the first to have "scalable" platforms, which can be expanded. This will allow the operator to start off with say, six-car trains, and add more cars per train as ridership picks up.
LTA is also considering express services for the line. This would cut end-to-end travel time, about an hour or so on the current lines.
- ricky l1 minute ago
