Sfdwhf

Bukit Panjang
Planning Area and HDB Town
Other transcription(s)
• Chinese	武吉班让
• Pinyin	Wǔjíbānràng
• Hokkien	Bú-kiat Pan-jâng
• Malay	Bukit Panjang
• Jawi	بوكيت ڤنجڠ
• Tamil	பக்கிட் பஞ்சாங்
From top left to right: HDB flats in Bukit Panjang, Senja-Cashew Community Club with HDB flats in the background, Summit of Bukit Timah Hill, Zhenghua Community Club
Bukit Panjang Location of Bukit Panjang within Singapore
Coordinates: 1°22′51.00″N 103°45′45.00″E / 1.3808333°N 103.7625000°E / 1.3808333; 103.7625000
Country	Singapore
Region	West Region
CDC	North West CDC
Town council	Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council
Constituencies	Bukit Panjang SMC Holland-Bukit Timah GRC
Government
• Mayor	North West CDC Teo Ho Pin
• Members of Parliament	Bukit Panjang SMC Teo Ho Pin Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Liang Eng Hwa Vivian Balakrishnan
Area [1][2]
• Total	8.99 km2 (3.47 sq mi)
• Residential	2.19 km2 (0.85 sq mi)
Population (2018)[1][2][3]
• Total	140,820
• Density	16,000/km2 (41,000/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Official Bukit Panjang resident Colloquial Bukit Panjanger Bukit Panjangian Bukit Panjangite
Ethnic groups [3]
• Chinese	103,280
• Malays	22,230
• Indians	10,300
• Others	3,210
Postal districts	21, 23
Dwelling units	34,463
Projected ultimate	44,000

Bukit Panjang (Chinese: 武吉班让, Tamil: புக்கித்து பஞ்சாங்), formerly known as Zhenghua^[4] and often abbreviated as Bt Panjang, is a planning area and residential town located in the West Region of Singapore. A portion of this town is situated on a low-lying elongated hill. The planning area is bounded by Bukit Batok to the west, Choa Chu Kang to the northwest, Sungei Kadut to the north, the Central Water Catchment to the east and Bukit Timah to the south. Bukit Panjang New Town is located at the northern portion of the planning area. Bukit Panjang has an average elevation of 36m/118 ft.^[5]

A scene in Bukit Panjang. The brown bridge in the photo is a LRT viaduct, on which LRT trains travel.

Etymology

Bukit in the Malay Language means "hill" and Panjang means "long". Bukit Panjang literally means "long hill" which gets its name from the long range of high hills which ends in Bukit Timah to the south.^{[citation needed]}

At the height of the movement to change place names in Singapore to Mandarin ones using hanyu pinyin romanization, the new town to be built in the area was initially known as Zhenghua (正华), after the Pinyinised version of "Cheng Hwa", which was derived from the old road Jalan Cheng Hwa. along with Yishun (义顺) for Nee Soon, and Zhujiao market for tek kha (竹脚) market in Kandang Kerbau. The trading of old dialect names which have gained common currency for unfamiliar, Mandarin ones was not well received by the public, and Bukit Panjang was quickly reinstated. However, the name Zhenghua is preserved in the name of the flyover between Bukit Panjang Road and the Bukit Timah Expressway as well as the Zhenghua Park.^{[citation needed]}

The roads there are named after old 60s kampung tracks (Lorong Petir, Lorong Pending, Jalan Fajar, Jalan Senja^[6]) which used to ply the area.

History

Bukit Panjang, which is known as Zhenghua for several years before its name was reinstated, is a suburban town in western Singapore. Development of the town and advanced earthworks begun on 15 June 1981. HDB flats rose up by 20 May 1985, but only Blocks 1xx and 2xx were built so far. Neighbourhood 4 was up and running by 1989, and followed by Neighbourhood 5 and 6 which was the recent ones since 1995.

Administration

Bukit Panjang Plaza, near the Bukit Panjang LRT Station.

The Bukit Panjang area comes under the administrative lead of the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, which oversees the management and maintenance of the many apartments (HDB Flats) and commercial units in Bukit Panjang.

Housing, amenities, and attractions

Bukit Panjang is a quiet town compared to some of the older housing estates such as Toa Payoh, Ang Mo Kio and other more publicly discussed towns, but it has some major housing development under way.^{[citation needed]}

The town consists of a mixture of old and new blocks of flats as well as condominiums. To date, there are three community centers (CC), including Bukit Panjang Community Club, Zhenghua Community Centre, and the newly built Senja-Cashew Community Centre, which serve the entertainment, recreational, and educational needs of residents.

Bukit Panjang Plaza (Chinese: 武吉班让大厦; Pinyin: wǔjíbānràng dàshà) is the largest shopping mall in Bukit Panjang. It is located in the heart of Bukit Panjang town and is near Bukit Panjang LRT Station, Bukit Panjang MRT Station and Bukit Panjang Bus Interchange. Located on Jelebu Road, the mall has expanded to include more shops in the building. The mall is owned by CapitaRetail which is another retail-based REIT by CapitaLand. The mall houses the Bukit Panjang Community Library as well as a NTUC FairPrice supermarket.

In addition to Bukit Panjang Plaza, there are four smaller neighbourhood shopping malls equipped with hawker centres, supermarkets, and other basic shops to meet the basic necessities of the residents. These include Junction 10 Shopping Centre, Fajar Shopping Centre, Greenridge Shopping Centre, and the Bangkit Shopping Centre.

Bangkit Shopping Centre is a hive of activities on weekends and during the Lunar Chinese New Year Festivities this is the Chinatown of the west. Visitors will be surprised at the many and varied vendors in this shopping centre, they offer a big assortment of products at very competitive pricing.

Hillion Mall (Chinese: 山乐坊) is the latest addition to the shopping malls in Bukit Panjang, which completed construction and was opened to the public on 24 February 2017.^[7] Hillion Mall is directly connected to the Bukit Panjang MRT Station (DT1) on the Downtown Line via underpass.

The area has two parks, the Bukit Panjang Park and Zhenghua Park. Bukit Panjang Park is just right across from Bukit Panjang Plaza and wraps around a man-made pond. Zhenghua Park consists of a fitness area, gazebos, playgrounds, and a 2.5-kilometre cycling and jogging track that runs alongside the Bukit Timah Expressway. The parks interconnect via a park connector which is a cycling and jogging track. This ensures the continuity of the existing tracks in both of the parks. At the edge of the man-made pond lies a sports complex and a community center managed by the Senja-Cashew Community Club. The sports complex and community club have an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a children's pool, badminton court, tennis courts, street soccer courts and rooms designed for specific purposes.^{[clarification needed]}

Community centres

• Zhenghua Community Club


• Bukit Panjang Community Club


• Senja-Cashew Community Club

Education

As of 2017^[update], this area has a total of six primary schools and five secondary schools.^[8]

Transport

Road

Bukit Panjang is adjacent to two of Singapore's major highways, the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) and Kranji Expressway (KJE), and is a quick gateway to and from other towns. As such, many drivers coming from the western parts of Singapore make use of Bukit Panjang's major roads as one of the ways to access the BKE, and, subsequently, the KJE.

Bukit Panjang also has a ring road running through the neighbourhoods, the Bukit Panjang Ring Road, which acts as a feeder to the main arterial roads in the town

Bus

The bus system, rapid transit and light rail are the forms of public transportation that serve this town.

The public bus system is predominantly run by SMRT Buses. Of the SMRT buses based in Bukit Panjang, some are intra-town "feeder-service" buses that serve the various neighbourhoods, some are used to ferry passengers into the Light Rail Transit system, and the rest are long-distance services that serve as a mode of transport to other towns and to the city.

Rail

The Bukit Panjang LRT Line

The driverless and fully automated Bukit Panjang LRT Line was completed on 11 June 1999 is estimated to be worth $2 billion.^{[citation needed]} The rail line was intended to serve the growing town and act as a replacement to the many buses employed through the town, especially during rush hour.

Several petitions were presented by the residents of Bukit Panjang protesting the decision by SMRT to replace the buses in Bukit Panjang with the LRT system. Some of the complaints were related to the fact that people preferred the previous bus system that covered most parts of the Bukit Panjang neighbourhoods such as bus service 190 and 972. The previous bus system was viewed as more efficient because it had many bus stops within walking distance; the LRT system has only 14 stations that are spaced hundreds of meters apart.

The new Bukit Panjang MRT Station on the Downtown Line opened on 27 December 2015, and is located at the Bukit Panjang Integrated Transport Hub, which comprises a Bus Interchange, LRT and MRT Station. It is located next to Hillion, and is an interchange with the Bukit Panjang LRT Station. It will provide Bukit Panjang residents with direct train access.

Politics

Bukit Panjang is politically divided into three constituencies. The area of Bukit Panjang is in Bukit Panjang Single Member Constituency whose Member of Parliament is Teo Ho Pin who is the mayor for Northwest Community Development Council. The other two constituencies are enclosed in the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency. This includes Senja, a part of Jelapang, Segar, Gangsa and a portion of Petir. Senja, Segar and Jelapang are located in Zhenghua constituency of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC whose Member of Parliament is Liang Eng Hwa with Gangsa and the remaining portion of Petir belonging to Cashew division of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC with its Member of Parliament being the Foreign Affairs Minister Dr.Vivian Balakrishnan.

References

• Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
  ISBN 981-210-205-1
  


• http://www.bukitpanjang.com

Footnotes

External links

• Zhenghua Park (owned by the National Parks Board of Singapore)


• SMRT Trains (Bukit Panjang LRT)


• Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council


• My Bukit Panjang