Thursday, May 18, 2006
[RealEdge] TodayOnline : Upgrading of lifts not for all flats
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| Upgrading of lifts not for all flats HDB should demolish ageing flats whose designs make upgrading costly Thursday • May 18, 2006 Letter from Patrick Tan In the '70s and '80s, the HDB started to build 4-room flats with common corridors that have lifts which stop at certain levels. These of flats was popular because they accorded privacy to most residents, except those living on the corridor levels. With an ageing population, there is now a need to have lifts stop at every level. But lift upgrading is not feasible for this type of flat design because there is no common corridor at every floor. My mother lives at Block 121 Paya Lebar Way, which is within the MacPherson estate. Her block and neighbouring Block 122 were built in 1980, with lifts serving only the sixth and 11th level. Two years ago, both blocks were selected for the HDB's main upgrading programme. However, the programme did not receive the required majority support. One reason is because under this upgrading programme, only two families at each level would be served by the new lift. It also means that the HDB needs to construct more lifts to ensure that all the flats would be served at every level — hence pushing up the cost. Not only is it costly to install so many new lifts in one block, it is also expensive to maintain them. Furthermore, the new lift shells that need to be built might obstruct the views of flat owners. The HDB has stopped building such 4-room flats since the late '80s. It should now consider demolishing such 4-room flats and build more user-friendly flats with lower maintenance costs. After all, most of these flats are over 20 years old. In the case of Blocks 121 and 122 of Paya Lebar Way, these flats are already 26 years old. It does not make sense to build new lifts just to serve two families at each level. | |
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// posted by Shajahan @ 9:31 AM 