Botanic Gardens to get $35m upgrade

New complex to house priceless plants, but say goodbye to 'roti john', as Taman Serasi food centre will make way for grander entrance to gardens

THE Botanic Gardens will undergo a $35-million redevelopment to make it more visitor-friendly, and build a new research and teaching complex.

No more Roti John? Madam Suriah Sugip, 68, serves up one of Taman Serasi Food Centre's best loved dishes -- roti john. The centre will be closed at the end of this year. -- HOW HWEE YOUNG

Announcing this yesterday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the plan would better position the gardens as 'a premier botanical research institution, in addition to being the leading park of Singapore'.

The new complex will house the gardens' collection of plants, library, laboratories and School of Horticulture.

The gardens' plant collection includes more than 600,000 specimens of tropical plants, and the library boasts archival material dating back to the 16th century.

'This priceless collection of our national botanical treasures will be properly conserved and made more accessible for public viewing,' said Mr Mah at the opening of the redeveloped Changi Beach Park.

The park was re-opened last night after a $4-million upgrading to improve the lighting, and build more shelters, toilets, carparks and a fishing pier.

The Botanic Gardens' new complex will also house a reference centre where the public can go and learn about plants found here and in the region, a function room where meetings and wedding ceremonies can be held, and a new food-and-beverage outlet.

To make the area near the main gate in Tanglin more visitor-friendly, an entrance plaza with a drop-off point for taxis and cars will be built. There will also be a new carpark along Cluny Road and a covered walkway to link the entrance plaza to the teaching complex.

Cluny Road will be widened from its present two lanes to four and realigned to help ease traffic congestion.

That means that the Taman Serasi food centre, across the road from the gardens, will have to go. The hawkers will be asked to move out by the end of this year.

This round of redevelopment, which will be completed in four years' time, is the third and final phase of a master plan drawn up in 1990 and spearheaded by the National Parks Board.

The earlier phases saw the development of the National Orchid Garden, Visitors Centre, Palm Valley and other attractions.

The 142-year-old gardens, which attracted more than two million visitors in 1999, enjoyed an increase in visitors after the redevelopment began.

The Tanglin end has the parks' oldest trees and buildings. Ridley and Holttum Halls - where the gardens had their early beginnings - were built in 1883 and 1920 respectively. They will be conserved and refurbished.

Mr Mah said that in the last five years, NParks spent over $50 million to upgrade 12 older parks, including West Coast Park, Labrador Park and Mount Faber Park.