Grave documentation

Grave documentation nearly complete The New Paper | Mon, Feb 06, 2012 AN EXERCISE to document some 5,000 graves at Bukit Brown Cemetery, where a controversial road is slated to cut through, is almost complete. And the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will "use the findings from the documentation exercise to fine-tune the road alignment so as to reduce the impact on the graves", said Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Minister of State for National Development and Manpower in a Facebook post yesterday. "Some adjustments are already being made," said Mr Tan, after visiting the cemetery yesterday morning. He met anthropologist Hui Yew-Foong and his team who have been documenting the graves that could potentially be affected by the new road. They started work on Dec 1. Last year, the Urban Redevelopment Authority announced that Bukit Brown would be needed for future housing. And the LTA revealed plans to construct a dual four-lane carriageway through Bukit Brown by next year to ease congestion on Lornie Road. The road will affect about 5,000 of more than 100,000 graves there. Noting the "heritage value" of Bukit Brown cemetery - whose redevelopment plans have upset many -Mr Tan said "tensions over development and environment-history-heritage will become more acute". But he revealed the area could yield 15,000 homes for some 50,000 residents - "roughly 40 per cent the number of homes in Toa Payoh town". He stressed: "These are homes for many many Singaporeans." Going forward, Mr Tan said: "Let's see how we can develop Bukit Brown in the interim, to make it more accessible to visitors, even as we maintain its rustic charm." This article was first published in The New Paper.