Tuesday, January 29, 2008

சிங்கை பக்கம் - Local news

ERP rates to go up by S$0.50 at certain gantries from Feb 4








SINGAPORE: Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates are set to go up by S$0.50 starting 4 February, according to the Land Transport Authority.





At the Bukit Timah Expressway gantry, motorists will be charged S$1.00 from 7.30am to 8am, and S$1.50 from 8am to 8.30am.






At the Central Expressway (CTE) gantry north of Braddell Road, ERP rates will go up to S$1.00 for those driving from 7.00am to 7.30am. The same charge applies to those driving along the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) at Adam Road from 8am to 8.30am.






Those going through the nine gantries at Orchard Road, the YMCA and Fort Canning gantries will have to fork out S$1.00 on weekdays from 7pm to 8pm. The same charge applies for those gantries on Saturday afternoons as well, from 5.30pm to 6.30pm. - CNA/ac








- Surya.V















SMRT opens first non-underground retail space in Choa Chu Kang





SMRT has officially opened its first heartland, non-underground retail space - Choa Chu Kang Xchange, at the junction of a bus interchange, MRT and LRT stations. This follows the Raffles and Dhoby Xchanges, both of which are in the city.





Covering close to 1,000 square metres, all 42 shops at Choa Chu Kang Xchange have been leased out. SMRT Corporation president & CEO Saw Phaik Hwa said, five years ago "when we started off for only retail, we used to... make about S$20 million in terms of rentals. Today, I think this year, we should end in excess of S$40 million. So, it's more than doubled in terms of revenue from rentals alone."





Despite some recent problems with tenants at the Dhoby Xchange, who felt they were not getting enough exposure, SMRT said things have since turned around there and there are now many new tenants and the occupancy rate has hit over 90 per cent.





SMRT said retail space in the heartlands does not necessarily mean lower rentals. Mr Saw said, "It is not location. It is the passengers that you bring to the location. So we have tens of thousands, sometimes 100,000 passengers, in certain exchanges like Boon Lay, (which) is very highly used. Here (Choa Chu Kang) is very highly used."





Some shops at the Xchange have been able to balance-off higher rentals with higher profits, but smaller neighbourhood shops, which do not have such high passenger volume, are feeling the heat. "Ever since that place opened, our business has gone down by half, so we try to keep our prices low," said a neighbourhood cake shop lady.





Work is also underway at two other Xchanges in Boon Lay and Tanjong Pagar, which should be ready by the first half of this year.








Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/325487/1/.html





- Surya.V











YOGA Classes in Singapore!



Friends,



Interested in learning Yoga? Check this link,



http://www.yogafinder.com/index.html for worldwide Yoga classes...



and http://www.yogafinder.com/yoga.cfm?yogacountry=Singapore&yogacity=Singapore is the link for Singapore.



I found one centre is in Woodlands St 14...



Pls make use of it, if you need...





- Surya.V

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