New towns, new ballots and new boundaries

Tengah 'still a work in progress'

- Cherie Lok

Spend an hour in Tengah and you will start to understand the jokes on the @tengah.memes Instagram account. Daily life is indeed soundtracked by the constant hum of construction, cars suddenly lose all regard for the time-honoured rules of the zebra crossing, and buses take "an eternity" to come.

Singapore's newest town is bordered on one side by the Bukit Batok neighbourhood, and a forest on the other. Here, in the shadow of the half-built MRT line, Tengah's 8,000 residents live, eat and work – or rather, travel to work – with acclimatised equanimity.

Questions about what life is like on this fringe of civilisation are met with polite smiles and the recurrent refrain, "It's still a work in progress."

There are certain things they love about their sparkling new estate, which still smells faintly of fresh paint. "It's very clean, and there are lots of plants and trees," says one Mr Foo, who, like several people who spoke with The Straits Times, did not want to give his full name.

The 30-year-old IT engineer moved in a year ago – not entirely out of choice, he conceded – and lives in Plantation District, former farmland now dotted with community plots.

Fellow resident Sakthi, 30, also enjoys its unique calm. "Not that many people have moved in yet, so we can still enjoy the estate in this quieter state."

He is interrupted by the loud wail of a nearby drill, but good-naturedly brushes it off. "I've learnt to tune it out. It's an inevitable part of improving the neighbourhood, so we just have to accept it."

Other highlights include the playgrounds (with veritable works of art shaped like insects, fruits and other curiosities), gym and the district's only shopping centre, Plantation Plaza.

"(The mall) wasn't here when I moved in six months ago, so this is already much better," says accountant Cathy Wu, 34, whose son is off conquering an adjacent playground's slides and swings.