Tengah, Singapore

Tengah is an area north of Jurong and west of Bukit Batok, slightly bigger than Jurong West. It is currently reserved for future housing developments and to be built by 2019.

History

Before urbanization took place, Tengah was known as 'Hong Kah', a Chinese kampong just slightly north off present-day Jurong Spring and Jurong Green.

In the 1980s, under the government's resettlement plan, villagers of Hong Kah were shifted to nearby towns newly built by the government, particularly into today's Jurong Green, Jurong Spring and Bukit Batok areas. Schools were shifted elsewhere and one example is Xingnan Primary School, which used to operate at a temple along 'Hong Kah Road' at the village. The HDB estates of Jurong Green and Jurong Spring are given the name 'Hong Kah', probably meaning that most of the villagers resettled there. When the village was cleared, the PIE and AYE projects started in the area and that led to the creation of 'Jurong West Avenue 2' and the expressway which brought about the rise of Jurong West New Town and Choa Chu Kang New Town. The 2 expressways, together with Brickland Road and Bukit Batok Road, bonded part of Hong Kah, which made it inaccessible to the general public and Hong Kah became a reserve site since then.

Currently, it is being inhabited and used by the military for training activities. The part of Hong Kah being bounded has since been renamed to 'Tengah', probably due to military reasons.

Military use

Since mid-2006, Tengah is home to Tengah Air Base and Home Team Academy. The military area forms parts of Tengah (the section of Old Choa Chu Kang Road, HomeTeam Academy and Pan Island Expressway until Teen Challenge Centre), plus the big plot of land, is mostly known as Jurong North/Hong Kah.

Future

Tengah is expected to be a new town. However, no news had been announced as the HDB is doing the Bidadari side, which is expected to complete it by 2017. Tengah will have feature a demonstration of large story HDB flats and the production units are expected to be up to 15 stories due to the proximity of Tengah Airbase.