HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
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By Teo Wan Gek
STALLHOLDERS at Bedok Food Centre, famed for its chwee kueh
(steamed rice cake with preserved radish) and chye tau kueh (carrot
cake), have petitioned the Government not to tear the place down
when their lease expires in 2014.
Such a move, they said, would put an end to their means of
making a living at the food centre in Block 207, New Upper Changi
Road, where most of them have been for almost 30 years.
There are about 70 stallholders there, and unlike most of their
counterparts elsewhere, many of them own their stalls under a
20-year lease that will expire in 2014. These stall owners were
among the first group of hawkers allowed to buy their stalls under
the 1994 Stall Ownership Scheme. But now they are losing sleep over
their future because in three years the land will go back to the
Government, which has yet to make public its plans for it.
A new development at a neighbouring site has made them fear the
worst.
In September this year, the plot next door, which is home to a
bus interchange, was sold to property giant CapitaLand. It will
build an integrated public transport hub on the plot, to be ready
by 2015.
The stallholders fear that their food centre may go the same
way.
