CALL IT a happy coincidence, but the record crowd at Vivocity this weekend was not a human jam as people moved seamlessly through the MRT gates to shop, shop, shop.
Modifications to HarbourFront MRT station's exits and ticket machines ensured a steady flow - but the work had actually been carried out to facilitate construction of the Circle Line.
Singapore's biggest and newest mega-mall pulled in 188,000 shoppers on Saturday alone, exceeding last Saturday's 168,000.
Yesterday, over 122,000 people had visited by 6pm.
The 1.4 million sq ft mall is the combined size of Suntec City and the Tangs outlet in Orchard Road.
One typically unflustered shopper was Mr Ng Chun Meng, 29, an IT manager. 'We were here last week and it was about as crowded,' he said.
But there was no chaos at the MRT station.
Over the weekend, more than 60,000 passengers used the station. However, prior to the mall's opening, the weekend commuter traffic there was about 30,000.
SBS Transit, which operates the North-East Line, upped the number of ticket machines on Saturday - from five to eight.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) yesterday also completed the relocation of the existing fare gates closer to the linkway leading to Entrance B, which leads to HarbourFront and the new Entrance E, which leads directly to the basement of Vivocity.
LTA spokesman Naleeza Ebrahim said the work had been done to 'facilitate the construction of HarbourFront station on the Circle Line'.
She added that a second phase of work would relocate the remaining fare gates closer to the linkway leading to Entrance C's current ticketing machines, but the timing for that has not been decided yet.
HarbourFront station will be one of the six interchange stations on the $6.8 billion Circle Line, which is expected to be completed by 2010.
As it turned out, the additional work helped prevent bottlenecks and accidents.
In any case, though, SBS Transit took no chances with the relentless flow of shoppers, adding in extra measures just in case the crowds got even bigger over the weekend.
One included deploying more staff at the two foodcourts, Food Republic and Kopitiam, which opened for business over the weekend.
SBS Transit spokesman Tammy Tan told The Straits Times: 'We have increased the number of staff for crowd control and safety reasons.'
But she added that the numbers were not unmanageable and that there still was capacity on the North-East Line trains plying the route.
Nearly a million people have patronised Vivocity since it opened two weeks ago.
About 60 per cent of the 300 shops are open. The mall boasts big brand names like Esprit, Topshop and Zara. Mango opens its doors today.
But how long will the tide of shoppers last?
Mr Frederick Png, 59, a senior marketing director in a real estate firm, said: 'I suppose the attraction is that it's a new shopping centre. It's definitely more crowded than Suntec City now.
'But the question is, can they can sustain it?'
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