Government's efforts

On many online forums, people have voiced out their displeasure about how the west is underdeveloped as compared to the East. While the east have Tampinies One & Tampinies Mall, Century Square, WHitesands, all situated beside MRTs, the West has limited choices, with only Jurong Point and IMM near MRTs. The government, having realized the difference in development in the East and the West, has since then undertaken actions to give Jurong a complete “makeover”.

Starting with the transportation, the Jurong East modification project was put in place by the government to provide commuters with a shorter waiting time for trains. Previously, trains travelling to and from the Jurong East and Bukit Batok stations have to take turns arriving and departing from the shared middle platform at Jurong East station. This slows down the trains running through Jurong East interchange station and increases the waiting time of commuters up to 5 minutes. Now, with the new track alignment and platform built for the North-South Mrt lines, the waiting time for trains for commuters has been brought down to around 2 minutes as more trains can be put through to Jurong East Station. Predicting the increase of passengers with the introduction of the new track, SMRT has also started running additional train trips, boosting the passenger carrying capacity of trains by 15%, to further shorten waiting time and reducing crowding on trains.

With the new MRT transportation system, more people have been attracted to the west, seeing that it is now more convenient than before. With more people visiting the area, more business opportunities would be brought about to the area. In order to support the possible business boom in the area, the government has made use of the land use policy to rejuvenate the town centre. Beginning with URA’s master plan for the Jurong District, the new Jurong Regional Centre, or the “Jurong Gateway”, is set to be built as the largest commercial hub outside the city centre. An integrated healthcare hub comprising of 2 hospitals, are also slated for completion soon.The rejuvenation plans will further extend from the Regional Centre all the way to the surrounding HDB heartlands, where a new pedestrian mall between Jurong East Town Centre and the newly opened JCube mall will be built, connecting residents and visitors seamlessly between Jurong East MRT station to Lakeside.