22-649: Sembawang is a planning area and residential town located in the North Region of Singapore . Sembawang planning area is bordered by Simpang to the east, Mandai to the south, Yishun to the southeast, Woodlands to the west and the Straits of Johor to the north. Despite the relatively large development in the Sembawang New Town, the area remains largely suburban, with military, industrial and recreational facilities at its periphery. It hosted
44-506: A commercial dockyard (as Sembawang Shipyard, now part of Singapore Exchange - listed SembCorp Marine ) that went on to become SembCorp, a major state-owned industrial conglomerate . Extensive land reclamation throughout Singapore has left Sembawang with one of the country's last natural beaches, the Wak Hassan Beach located at Sembawang Park . Today, the vegetable farms, rubber plantations and Chinese graveyards surrounding
66-519: A constituency named Seletar but later carved out forming a dedicated Sembawang Single Member Constituency beginning in the 1955 , then resized to a smaller constituency leaving only the northern areas. Sembawang has always been held by the People's Action Party since its formation and has been expanded to include subregions of Admiralty and Canberra since it became a Group Representation Constituency . Former President of Singapore Tony Tan Keng Yam
88-631: A major naval base and port facilities since the early 20th century, and continues to handle regular shipping traffic today along its wharves. The earliest reference to Sembawang is found in Franklin and Jackson's 1830 Map of Singapore , which refers to the River Tambuwang. The place is said to have got its name from the pokok sembawang ( Malay for the kayae ferruginea ), which has been renamed Mesua ferruginea from 1980. This tree can be seen at Sembawang Park . The Sembawang area in
110-596: Is a Singapore Armed Forces military base on Admiralty Road, open only to military personnel on official business. The camp houses the 1st and 3rd Transport Battalion of the Singapore Army , as well as the Republic of Singapore Navy 's Naval Diving Unit (NDU) . Also, the compound housing the Naval Diving Unit was previously known as Terror Camp in deference to the old admin and Officers club section of
132-709: The National Library Board and situated within the Sun Plaza shopping centre. Planning Areas of Singapore Planning areas , also known as DGP areas or DGP zones , are the main urban planning and census divisions of Singapore delineated by the Urban Redevelopment Authority . There are 55 of these areas, organised into five regions . A Development Guide Plan is then drawn up for each planning area, providing detailed planning guidelines for every plot of land throughout
154-706: The People's Action Party (PAP). This GRC came into formation in 1991, when it absorbed the Tiong Bahru GRC , Telok Blangah SMC and Tanjong Pagar SMC . Since the formation of the GRC, the ward was notable for its repeated walkovers . The last walkover was in 2011 when Tanjong Pagar GRC became the only constituency to be uncontested following the disqualification of a team of independent candidates (which led by Ng Teck Siong) as they submitted their nomination papers 35 seconds late. ^ Lee died on 23 March 2015 due to pneumonia . No by-elections were called as it
176-598: The 1970s–1990s to make way for Yishun and Sembawang New Towns. The last of the villages, Kampong Wak Hassan, was cleared in 1998. Present day Sembawang Road is a major arterial road linking the Northern and Central portion of Singapore. Many other roads in Sembawang are named after various Royal Navy dockyards, warships , admirals , countries and cities. Examples include Wellington , Canberra , Canada, Gibraltar , Kenya and Falkland . These names were given during
198-532: The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to maintain a small logistics base at Sembawang wharf to control most of the foreign military activities there, which includes repair, refuel and resupply for ships of the Australian, British and New Zealand navies as well as those from other Commonwealth countries under the auspices of Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA). This special arrangement
220-809: The Far East (along with the three other RAF bases in Singapore: RAF Changi , RAF Seletar and RAF Tengah ) during the critical period of Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), the Brunei Revolt in 1962 and during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation (1962–1966). Despite the withdrawal of British forces from Singapore in 1971 and the handover of the Singapore Naval Base to the Singapore Government in 1968,
242-636: The Royal Naval facility which was called HMS Terror. Sembawang Road is one of the key roads built to connect the naval base to the city centre in the South. This road began as a track in the 1920s and was officially named Sembawang Road in 1938. Buses operated by various private companies were then the main mode of transport. The thoroughfare was also dotted with many villages along its length: Chye Kay Village, Sungei Simpang Village, Chong Pang Village, Sembawang Village. Most of these villages were cleared during
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#1732775806931264-778: The country. The planning areas were first introduced in the early 1990s after the release of the 1991 Concept Plan. Since implementing these boundaries, other government ministries and departments have increasingly adopted them for administrative purposes. For example, the Statistics Department of Singapore published its 2000 census data based on planning area boundaries for the first time, compared to using census divisions based on electoral boundaries for previous exercises. The Singapore Police Force 's (SPF) neighbourhood police centres have jurisdiction boundaries based on planning area boundaries when they were officially gazetted in 1999, as opposed to electoral divisions under
286-568: The early twentieth century was the site of the Nee Soon Rubber estate. During colonial times , Sembawang was home to a major British naval base, the construction of which began in 1928 and was completed in 1938. The base included dockyards , wharves and workshops, as well as supporting administrative, residential and commercial areas. The Naval Base has since been handed over to the Singapore government , which in 1968 converted it into
308-573: The former naval base have given way to modern housing, especially in the 1990s during the development of a New Town by the Singapore Housing and Development Board . The town remains a major port, with Sembawang Wharves handling a high volume of bulk commodities cargo, such as timber and rubber. The planning of Sembawang New Town started in 1996 where the Woodlands MRT Extension was opened, and Sembawang MRT station
330-469: The old bus terminals located at the Northern tip of Sembawang Road, just next to Sembawang Park and the other located along Admiralty Road West. Sembawang has a total of five primary schools and two secondary schools. Three shopping centres, including Sembawang Shopping Centre , Canberra Plaza and Sun Plaza next to the Sembawang MRT station . Sembawang Public Library , which is managed by
352-477: The previous British administration, and reflect the town's history as a British naval base . The main river running through Sembawang, the 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) long Sungei Sembawang, flowed along a winding route and ended to the west of Sembawang Shipyard. Its middle section was diverted in the 1920s to provide the land needed for the British Naval Base. During the 1970s, the Northern portions of
374-860: The previous neighbourhood Police Post system. Planning areas are further subdivided into 332 subzones for statistical purposes. * = Place names attested to be of Malay origin and referred to similarly in the Malay language. Tanjong Pagar GRC The Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in Central and Western Singapore. The five divisions consists: Buona Vista , Queenstown , Moulmein-Cairnhill, Tanjong Pagar - Tiong Bahru and Henderson-Dawson managed by Tanjong Pagar Town Council. The current Members of Parliament are Chan Chun Sing , Joan Pereira , Alvin Tan , Eric Chua and Indranee Rajah from
396-437: The river was straightened and canalized . The Southern portions of the river, which consisted of mangroves , ponds and grassland, was filled in during the 1990s in preparation for the development of Sembawang New Town. Two MRT stations are located in the area. They are Sembawang MRT station and Canberra MRT station . The Sembawang Bus Interchange , located next to Sun Plaza, was completed on 20 November 2005. This replaced
418-533: The start of military presence in Sembawang. In February 1942, both bases were partially torched and wrecked by the retreating British forces during the Battle of Singapore to deny their use by units of the advancing Imperial Japanese Army . After the end of World War II in 1945, both bases were reverted to British control and would eventually go on to play an important part in Britain's continued military presence in
440-714: Was also extended to the United States Navy since early 1960s to support the American involvement in the Vietnam War . As part of a 1990 agreement between Singapore and the United States, American military forces (primarily naval and air force ) have been making use of Sembawang's base facilities. The Task Force 73 (and Commander Logistic Group Western Pacific), part of US 7th Fleet , has been headquartered in Sembawang since 1992. The Sembawang Camp
462-579: Was also opened at the same time. When the station was opened, the area was undeveloped except the Canberra Road and the then-developing Sembawang New Town. This was resolved in 1998 because of the accelerating development of Sembawang New Town, which was completed in 2004. These HDB flats were within Sembawang, Canberra and Gambas division. In late 2022, Sembawang had their first hawker centre and polyclinic at Bukit Canberra , which opened progressively from July 2022 onwards. Sembawang once begun as
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#1732775806931484-651: Was one of the notable Members of Parliament of Sembawang, and was succeeded by former Tanjong Pagar GRC Member of Parliament and former Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan beginning in the General Election 2006 , followed by Health Minister Ong Ye Kung beginning in General Election 2015 who was then joined by Poh Li San beginning in General Election 2020 . The completion of Royal Navy 's Singapore Naval Base (also known as HMS Sembawang) in 1938 and RAF Sembawang (also known as HMS Simbang) in March 1940 marked
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