Bukit Panjang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Bukit Panjang highlighted in red |
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| English | Bukit Panjang |
| Chinese | 武吉班让 |
| (Pinyin | Wǔjíbānràng) |
| Malay | Bukit Panjang |
| Tamil | பக்கிட் பஞ்சாங்எல் |
Bukit Panjang is a suburban area situated in the Central North-Western part of Singapore. The Bukit Panjang Planning Area, located in the West Region, encompasses the Housing Development Board's housing estate of Bukit Panjang New Town and the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
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[edit] Etymology
Bukit in the Malay Language means "hill" and Panjang means "long". Bukit Panjang literally means "long hill" which gets its name from the long range of low hills which ends in Bukit Timah to the south.
At the height of the movement to change place names in Singapore to Mandarin ones using hanyu pinyin romanization, the new town to be built in the area was initialy known as Zhenghua, along with Yishun for Nee Soon, and Zhujiao market for tek kha market in Kandang Kerbau. The trading of old dialect names which have gained common currency for unfamiliar, Mandarin ones was not well-received by the public, and Bukit Panjang was quickly reinstated.
[edit] Administration
The Bukit Panjang area comes under the administrative lead of the Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, which oversees the management and maintenance of the many apartments (HDB Flats) and commercial units in Bukit Panjang.
[edit] Political history
Bukit Panjang is politically divided into three constituencies. The central area of Bukit Panjang is in Bukit Panjang Single Member Constituency whose Member of Parliament is Teo Ho Pin who is the mayor for Northwest Community Development Council. The other two constituencies are enclosed in the Holland-Bukit Timah Group Representation Constituency. This includes Senja, a part of Jelapang, Segar, Gangsa and a portion of Petir. Senja , Segar and Jelapang are located in Zhenghua constituency of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC whose Member of Parliament is Liang Eng Hwa with Gangsa and the remaining portion of Petir belonging to Cashew division of Holland-Bukit Timah GRC with its Member of Parliament being the Community Development, Youth and Sports minister Dr.Vivian Balakrishnan.
[edit] Reference
- Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern Universities Press, ISBN 981-210-205-1
[edit] External links
- The Bukit Panjang LRT System - Blog entry by The Singapore Ink
- Zhenghua Park (owned by the National Parks Board of Singapore)
- Singapore Light Rail Transit website
- Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council
