SINGAPORE, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Singapore on Monday
unveiled a 40 million Singapore dollar (about 27.3 million U.S. dollars) plan to
rejuvenate Orchard Road, the country's main shopping belt, as one of its key
ways to maintain its attraction as a key shopping destination in Asia.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced that with
the planned landscape and infrastructural enhancements, the street will have
advanced lighting highlighting its tree-lined boulevard, new creative spaces for
staging events and a more integrated and engaging pedestrian pavements.
The 2-km stretch of road will be divided into three
zones, namely the Tanglin, Orchard and Somerset zones. Each zone will feature
either a flower, forest or fruit theme, and efforts will be made to showcase the
corresponding greenery within the zone.
Existing lamp posts, street furniture and pedestrian
pavements will also be overhauled and be updated to be modern, clean, integrated
furniture.
Besides the infrastructure and landscape
improvements, the new look Orchard Road will aim to bring new lifestyle
experiences, like performances or art exhibitions.
These small-scale events will be housed in places
called "Urban Green Rooms", which will be built along the expanded pedestrian
pavement.
To make way for the expanded pedestrian pavement, one
road lane at the affected section will be closed.
The STB said Orchard Road attracts more than 7
million visitors annually so it is consistently ranked as Singapore's
most-visited, free-access attraction.
Tourism is turning out to be one of the important
industries of this city state. A record 9.7 million visitors arrived last year
and it is set to achieve 10.2 million visitor arrivals and some 13.6 billion
Singapore dollars (about 9.4 billion U.S. dollars) in tourism receipts this
year.
The government is investing more than 360 million
Singapore dollars (about 248 million U.S. dollars) over the next three years to
train and prepare about 75,000 workers for more anticipated growth.
Singapore has several upcoming attractions, including
the world's first night Formula 1 race in next September, and the two
multi-million dollar casino resorts set to be open in 2010.
Construction works to rejuvenate Orchard Road, which
will begin after the Lunar New Year in February next year, are expected to be
completed by April 2009.
