I AM excited and delighted about the impending upgrading of Chinatown Complex in the later part of 2006.
In the past, we were bitterly disappointed by some brilliant engineers/architects who created pseudo accessible upgrading in Chinatown.
A case in point is the beautiful garden bridge spanning Eu Tong Sen and New Bridge Road. The Eu Tong Sen end is totally accessible with an ultra modern lift opening to the bridge.
It is another story at the New Bridge Road end - a long flight of steps leading to Trengganu Street and another side exit with two drop steps to Lucky Chinatown.
I have many physically-challenged friends who lamented about this gross disregard for the wheelchair-users in this upgrading despite the thousands of dollars spent.
I hope that the planning committee for the upgrading of Chinatown Complex will seriously think through the accessibility features. I am a resident of one of the blocks of flats within the complex and my mother is wheelchair-bound.
Ironically, our postal address is Smith Street. Do you know that along Smith Street, there is not even one ramp access to Chinatown Complex? For the initiated, there are two points of proper ramp access to the complex.
One is hidden between two snack stalls along Banda Street. During festive seasons, it would be blocked by rubbish discarded by the vendors. The other one is along Keong Saik Road, beside Block 4 in Sago Lane. Unfortunately, most of the time many motorbikes are parked indiscriminately around the flushed ramp, and this sometimes renders it useless to wheelchair users.
Currently, shopping at the first floor of Chinatown Complex is a wheelchair user's nightmare. There are steps everywhere, some of which are totally unnecessary.
There is also no proper access for the wheelchair-bound to the food centre except through the two huge cargo lifts. The tables on the second floor of the food centre are so close together that it is almost impossible for a wheelchair user to go through.
I urge our MPs in Jalan Besar GRC, whom we supported during the recent election, to take a personal interest in this upgrading so that accessibility for the physically challenged is not compromised.
Chinatown Complex is one of Singapore's famous icons. Let's make it a model of totally accessible and user-friendly building which we can be proud of, and which others can emulate.
Julie Chia Lee Teow (Ms)
