| S'pore's very own ghost town
By Desmond Ng
AT first glance, the development on the right may look like any
Housing Board (HDB) estate.
Except this one is completely silent.
Deserted.
There are no housewives shopping at the wet market (which is
shuttered anyway), no old men playing Chinese chess at the void
decks, no children running around in the playground.
This isn't an early-morning phenomenon either: The entire
neighbourhood has been abandoned for more than six
months.
Atmosphere-wise, you might call it Singapore's very own ghost
town.
Spooky might even be the word to describe it - simply because of
the utter lack of humanity.
In this small neighbourhood are three low-lying blocks of HDB
flats, provision shops, a wet market and a food centre which have
not seen any sign of life since the last inhabitants left early this
year.
The only entrance to the car-park has also been sealed off with a
chained barricade.
By day, walking through the estate can give you a startle or two,
as The New Paper discovered. (See report below.).
It might not even be easy to find the place.
Right smack in the middle of nowhere, it is located along Lim Chu
Kang Road (near the Neo Tiew Road junction) - a five-minute drive
from the largest cemetery in Singapore.
An army camp is nearby.
You don't have to take our word for it, but The Singapore
Paranormal Investigators Club certainly thinks the estate is an
attraction. The club conducts paid tours, called the Ghoulish Trail,
for the public to visit this atmospheric site.
SPOOKEY TOUR
The $25 tour, which includes visits to other areas such as the
Bukit Brown Cemetery, is organised with the Singapore Institute of
Management (SIM) Film Society.
Film Society member Ho Weng Hin, 22, a Bachelor of Science
undergraduate at SIM, said: 'We thought it is a good idea because
there are some places in Singapore that people do not know about.
This is a chance for them to see and experience it.'
He noted that there will be two more tours before the year ends.
According to the HDB, Blocks 3 to 5 Lim Chu Kang Road were built
in 1979.
It was announced in October 1998 that they were slated for the
Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme.
The last occupants moved out early this year.
Plans for the site are being looked into, HDB
said.
Where time stands still
AS you walk down the deserted corridors of this HDB
neighbourhood, only the sound of dried leaves crackling under your
feet breaks the grave silence.
The neighbourhood's really that quiet, with the occasional truck
whizzing by along Lim Chu Kang Road.
We can only imagine what the place was once like - The New Paper
was unable to track down any former residents.
The peeling wall paint, the yellowed lamp-posts, the dirty slide
in the playground have all seen better days. And there's overgrown
greenery everywhere.
STRAY DOGS
The estate is home to a couple of stray dogs which insisted on
following me around.
It is a rest-stop for foreign workers from a nearby construction
site, too.
Evidence of their visits: Beer bottles and peanut shells on the
void deck floor.
A construction worker resting nearby was surprised to see
me.
'What are you doing here? Nobody ever comes here,' asked Chinese
national Chen Qian You in Mandarin.
The 38-year-old welder, who has been working here for the past
two years, added: 'The only ones who come here are foreign workers
like us. We just chill out and chit-chat. It's deserted and dark at
night. And quite scary, too.'
Along the five-foot way, a fading signboard of a clinic creaked
in the wind. Inside one of the three-room flats, there were
shattered windows, a dusty stool and the remains of a broken
cupboard.
Time has truly stood still for this forgotten
estate.
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