HAVING just completed renovations to his three-room flat in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, Mr Jackson Wee was reluctant to take up a Housing Board offer to make changes to his interior.

But he had a change of heart after seeing the work done in flats in other precincts.

‘I was so surprised – it was done so nicely, the quality was so good. So I changed my mind,’ he said.

That was back in 2003.

Yesterday, the 63-year-old technical engineer was among 600 residents at a dinner to celebrate the completion of the Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) for 10 blocks in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10: Blocks 411 to 419 and 421.

Celebrating with them was Mr Lee Hsien Loong, MP for Teck Ghee ward in Ang Mo Kio GRC.

Pointing to the improvements made, he said it reflects a system that works in Singapore.

‘People support the Government, the Government works for the people. We work together to have (Budget) surpluses, and from the surpluses we give back something to Singaporeans.’

Mr Lee made the promise that more would be done for housing estates in Singapore.

‘We will have new plans to improve our estates, to build up Singapore,’ he said, without elaborating.

‘This is a continuous process because we never finish saying how we can make Singapore a better place to live,’ he added.

The upgrading of Mr Wee’s precinct and the 10 blocks in it cost $55 million. The Government paid the bulk of the bill.

It gave the precinct landscaped seating areas, a shady pedestrian boulevard, and covered linkways, among other amenities. The street soccer court was also upgraded.

Mr Wee said that the new amenities downstairs have changed the entire feel of the estate: ‘In the evenings now, you can see a lot of old residents going downstairs, taking walks.

‘Before, nobody went down.’

Within their homes, owners got new windows and new decorative timber doors. Toilets were upgraded, and many residents also opted to add an extra utility room to their flat.

Mr Wee, a Christian, turned the additional space into his prayer room, which he also uses occasionally as a guest room for relatives and friends.

Earlier in the evening, at a nearby estate, Mr Lee launched the polling and exhibition of a proposed Lift Upgrading Programme for 13 blocks in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10.

The project would upgrade lifts in Blocks 464 to 476. Residents will have to decide whether to go ahead with the project by Monday.

The Lift Upgrading Programme will go ahead if at least 75 per cent of them vote for it.

Up to 85 per cent of the cost will be covered by the Government, and residents have the option to pay their share via monthly instalments over five or 10 years.

Housewife Kamisah Amat was so keen she cast her ‘yes’ vote almost immediately after the polling started yesterday evening.

The 50-year-old, who has lived in Block 471 since 2004, said she ‘has been waiting for the lift upgrading for very long’.

Source, Straits Times 22 January 2010