Govt terminates deal with firm that was planning a columbarium on site
By Lester Hio, The Straits Times, 8 May 2015
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A NEW tender for the development of a Chinese temple at Sengkang will be called, after the Government and a private developer said they will terminate a previous agreement between them.
By Lester Hio, The Straits Times, 8 May 2015
As part of the termination, the Ministry of National Development (MND) will refund Eternal Pure Land (EPL) in full what it paid for the land - about $5.2 million plus taxes and duties.
It will also release a 0.1ha plot of land along Tampines Road north of Paya Lebar Airbase, zoned for cemetery use, to the company for a "pilot project" for columbarium services.
The ministry said that this was the first time a place of worship site had been awarded to a firm not affiliated with a religious organisation and that it was not in line with the Government's plan for the site.
The ministry said that this was the first time a place of worship site had been awarded to a firm not affiliated with a religious organisation and that it was not in line with the Government's plan for the site.
It added that EPL "understood that its bid was not congruous with the planning intent" for a place of worship site, and agreed to terminate the awarded contract by mutual consent.
A group of residents of Fernvale Lea, the Build-to-Order flats next to the plot, had protested against the decision to allow a columbarium to be built on the site, arguing that the brochures they received made no mention of it. They also questioned the decision to award a commercial firm the tender when it involved land designated for religious use.
National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in January in Parliament that the Housing Board officers had assumed the company was working for a religious group. He had promised to "unwind" the situation.
Life Corporation, EPL's parent company, said in a statement that it agreed to the termination on "mutually acceptable terms".
The company will receive a full refund of the tender price along with a refund of associated taxes and duties which EPL had paid for the site.
It also announced that a submission to develop an automated columbarium at the land issued to it has been approved by the Government. This will be done through an affiliated entity, Life Corporate Services.Such a project will maximise land use efficiency and reduce inconvenience to surrounding users, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Sengkang West MP Lam Pin Min said in a Facebook post yesterday: "Sengkang West residents' concerns have been addressed by MND."
The plot of land at the heart of the saga will be opened up for re-tender for the development of a Chinese temple, which could still be able to operate ancillary columbariums, as allowed for under existing rules.
Eternal Pure Land had topped two other bidders for the site last year - the Taoist Peng Hong Association and the Xing Guang Maitreya Society.
Yesterday, MND said that they will open the site to a fresh tender, a piece of news that the chairman of the Taoist Peng Hong Association, Mr Tan Aik Hock, was happy to hear.
He said that the association will put in a bid once the re-tender opens. It had placed an unsuccessful bid of $4 million last year.
"But there will be no columbarium, which is everyone's concern," he said in Mandarin.
"We plan to have free medical consultations."
Columbarium issue: Only five flat buyers cancelled applications
By Aw Cheng Wei And Lester Hio, The Straits Times, 8 May 2015
By Aw Cheng Wei And Lester Hio, The Straits Times, 8 May 2015
THE majority of the buyers who wanted to cancel their flat applications after finding out that a columbarium was going to be built in their estate did not go ahead with their requests.
Of the 98 people who made appeals to the Ministry of National Development (MND), just five of them so far have gone ahead to cancel their flat applications without a refund, while another 47 have collected their keys.
The remainder will be invited to pick up their keys when their new homes are completed, an MND spokesman said yesterday.
Unhappy buyers rallied in January to demand that the Housing Board cancel their flat orders and give a full refund of the down payment for the new Build-to-Order flats they had booked around Fernvale Link in Sengkang.
Some did so after finding out that there would be a columbarium next to them, while others were unhappy with how the site, meant for a Chinese temple, was awarded to a non-religious organisation.
The HDB had told them in February that there would be no refund of the down payment if they proceeded with the cancellations.
Yesterday, prospective buyers and residents in the area cheered news that the Government and Eternal Pure Land (EPL), which won the bid for the site, had agreed to terminate the tender.
Residents like Ms Esther Gan, 39, said she was pleased to know that the land would go to a religious group. She would not object if a temple built an ancillary columbarium for its worshippers.
"Temples will have such provisions for their members. It's the high-tech, commercial columbariums that's (unacceptable)," said the financial analyst, who moved in two weeks ago.
Information technology technician Al-Imran Abdul Aziz, 29, will be moving in later this year. "It's good that the Government called for a re-tender. Better to have a religious group getting the land."
Professor Eugene Tan, a former Nominated MP and a law academic at Singapore Management University, said the termination, made mutually, returns MND and EPL to where they started, with no parties disadvantaged.
As part of the termination agreement, the Government will release a small plot of land - zoned for cemetery use - to EPL for a project for automated columbarium services.
"It could be a carrot dangled by (MND) for EPL to agree to the termination," said Prof Tan, noting that the firm could have pressed on with its legal rights to stay there. But it probably realised its presence in the community might not be welcomed and decided to back out now, he said.
"It could be a carrot dangled by (MND) for EPL to agree to the termination," said Prof Tan, noting that the firm could have pressed on with its legal rights to stay there. But it probably realised its presence in the community might not be welcomed and decided to back out now, he said.
"Considering the response from the people, no one in his right mind would open a columbarium," said sales manager Tan Wei Leong, 44, who is moving into Fernvale Lea later this year.
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