Two projects to turn Lim Chu Kang into high-tech food hub delayed

Development work for masterplan yet to start; plans for innovation park not ready

- Cheryl Tan

Two large-scale agri-tech projects in Lim Chu Kang, meant to help turn the rural north-western district into a high-tech food hub, have been delayed.

Developmental work for the Lim Chu Kang masterplan, announced by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) in 2020 as an initiative to redevelop some 390ha of land there into a high-productivity agri-food zone, was meant to commence in 2024.

When asked for an update on the masterplan, an SFA spokesman told The Straits Times that it is still in the "feasibility study and planning phase" - the first of a four-step process, which also involves design development, construction and operations.

Separately, construction work for the Agri-Food Innovation Park (AFIP) in the Sungei Kadut area, which was meant to be completed from the second quarter of 2021, has also stalled.

The AFIP, announced in 2019 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), is meant to bring together high-tech urban farming and associated research and development activities in Singapore's agri-tech and food zone, near the Lim Chu Kang farms and other food-related industries in Senoko.

But no buildings or construction work was seen at the site when ST visited in October. There were several tractors on site, but little activity going on in the area.

According to previous media reports, construction work for the AFIP had to stop for about five months in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Woodland at the site was cleared in 2020 and 2021, before an environmental study was completed. The unauthorised clearance was flagged in January 2021, and work stopped as investigations went on. In November 2023, the contractors involved were fined for prematurely felling the trees.