Tan Kah Kee MRT Station

DT8
Tan Kah Kee
陈嘉庚
டான் கா கீ
Tan Kah Kee

Rapid transit

Downtown Line platforms of Tan Kah Kee MRT Station

Location

651 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 266268

Coordinates

1°19′34″N 103°48′26″E / 1.326039°N 103.807169°E

Operated by

SBS Transit DTL

Line(s)

Downtown Line

Platforms

Island

Tracks

Connections

Bus, Taxi

Construction

Structure type

Underground

Platform levels

Disabled access

Yes

Other information

Station code

DT8

History

Opened

27 December 2015

Electrified

Yes

Previous names

Duchess

Services

Preceding station		Mass Rapid Transit		Following station
Sixth Avenue towards Bukit Panjang		Downtown Line		Botanic Gardens towards Chinatown

Location

Tan Kah Kee MRT Station (DT8) is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the Downtown Line in Bukit Timah, Singapore. The station serves the Bukit Timah corridor just north of the junction between Bukit Timah Road and Duchess Avenue, and is within walking distance to several schools in the area, including Hwa Chong Institution, Nanyang Girls' High School, Raffles Girls' Primary School, Methodist Girls' School and National Junior College.^[1]

The station is named after Tan Kah Kee.

History

As part of the DTL Stage 2's LTA survey in 2008, some Singaporeans including those from Hwa Chong Institution, the Chinese High School and Nanyang Girls' High School wants the station's name to be renamed from Duchess to Hwa Chong.^[2] Despite this, it was not officially named Hwa Chong by public transport authorities, being forced to rename to Tan Kah Kee, in due respect of the founder after the 2011 general election, whereas it was unofficially named Hwa Chong, as it is located near to Hwa Chong Institution. The other two names, Hillcrest and Watten was also considered.^[3]

The Land Transport Authority has taken steps to repair damages to at least 40 Watten Estate homes, believed to be linked to the construction of the Downtown Line. Residents of the terraced and semi-detached houses at Bukit Timah complained that they began noticing hairline cracks in walls inside and outside their homes between July and August 2012. They added that cracks began widening in those weeks. Besides cracks, some car porch roofs and walls had shifted, and some gates could no longer open. The houses in the upscale neighbourhood where home prices start in the millions, are across from the site of the upcoming Tan Kah Kee MRT station. Checks were made by LTA and the houses were found to be structurally safe.^[4]

During the Downtown MRT Line Stage 2 open house on 5 December 2015, LTA was informed by netizens that the Tamil translation of the station was incorrect and issued an apology in the evening for the error and said: "We apologise for the error in the Tamil translation of Tan Kah Kee station and would be taking immediate action to have the station name replaced. This was done before the stations opened for passenger service on Dec 27, 2015." ^[5]

Art in Transit

The Tan Kah Kee MRT station features two murals created by students of the Hwa Chong Institution, titled Gratitude or 饮水思源 and Resilienceor 自强不息.^[6] Gratitude was designed to reflect the principle of giving back to society.^[7] Resilience was designed to resemble the sun, while Gratitude resembles stormy waves.^[6]

Station layout

L2	Overhead bridge	Hwa Chong Institution
L1	Street Level	Hwa Chong Institution
B1	Concourse	Faregates, Ticketing Machines, Station Control, Transitlink Counter
B2	Platform B	Downtown Line towards DT19 NE4 Chinatown via DT9 CC19 Botanic Gardens →
	Island platform, doors will open on the right
	Platform A	Downtown Line towards DT1 BP6 Bukit Panjang via DT7 Sixth Avenue ←