SLA Will Continue to Engage Community to Find Ways to Optimise Use of State Properties

We all have some forms of white elephants in our home.

No, I don’t mean that literally, but things that are kind of just sitting there and not doing anything

For us, it might be small things like old books you don’t read anymore or maybe devalued antiques.

But for countries, this could also mean whole plots of land that aren’t used or underutilised.

And the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) kind of doesn’t want that.

SLA Will Continue to Engage Community to Find Ways to Optimise Use of State Properties

This is why, on 2 March, Tuesday, Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong said that SLA is finding ways around this.

Specifically, to work closely with the community to find better uses of state-owned spaces and properties.

And they’ve already planned out a few things.

Mr Tong noted that SLA will work with the Urban Redevelopment Authority to find ways to reuse state properties in Changi Point.

At Yarrow Gardens, off Siglap Road, space will also be converted into a park for residents of all ages.

The park will be more than 16,000 sq ft in size, it was previously announced.

They also contributed a lot to the fight against COVID-19.

One such case last year was when healthy migrant workers moved out of dorms, SLA was part of the effort to move them to designated houses in Siloso Beach Resort.

They also announced around that period that the former Anderson Junior College hostel had been converted to alternative accommodations for foreign workers.

Using Technology

With the advancement in plans, advancement in technology would also help in the future.

All of the SLAs Temporary Occupation Licences are now issued in electronic format and digitally signed.

This saves time and lowers the chances of documents being misplaced.

Since 2016, around a million housing board leases have been digitised.

They also want to use platforms such as OneMap3D to better plan future projects.

Through this, SLA will also build up geospatial capabilities; tech that takes location data from many domains for better decision making.

While the current OneMap can help pinpoint locations accurately, the mentioned upgrade will use three-dimensional models and renderings to project how buildings.

This includes even those not even constructed yet.

Examples given as to how it might help include drone flight planning and simulation. Meanwhile, regular folk like us could probably use it to pinpoint areas more accurately.

Maybe think of it as a pop-up Google maps?

SLA will also build up the Geospatial Trusted Centre which public agencies can turn to for updated and accurate geospatial data.

With Singapore becoming so high-tech, there’s only one question on some of our minds.

Where are the flying cars though?

Feature Image: ThomasPhoto/ Shutterstock.com