Kembangan ( ) is a subzone and residential precinct located in the town of

Bedok Bedok ( ) is a Planning areas of Singapore, planning area and New towns of Singapore, residential town located in the geographical region of Tanah Merah, Singapore, Tanah Merah along the south-eastern coast of the East Region, Singapore, East R ...

in the East Region of Singapore. It consists largely of private residential areas and a small

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

estate along Lengkong Tiga.

Etymology

Kembangan means "expansion" in Malay. The road Jalan Kembangan was officially named in 1932.

History

Kembangan along with the wider

Geylang Geylang () is a planning area and township located on the eastern fringe of the Central Region of Singapore, bordering Hougang and Toa Payoh in the north, Marine Parade in the south, Bedok in the east, and Kallang in the west. Geylang is ...

district was badly hit by the September 1964 race riots and schools in the area had to be closed for an extended period despite other schools in Singapore reopening after the curfew was lifted. Later in the 1980s, the Malay villages of Kampong Kembangan and Kampong Pachitan, which used to stand at present day Kembangan estate, were demolished to make way for redevelopments in the area. Kampong Kembangan lies approximately to the east of the present day HDB flats in the estate, while Kampong Pachitan lie west of the flats. Several roads in the area were removed or realigned with the redevelopments that were in tandem with the construction of the MRT Line and station there.

Amenities

Kembangan is served by limited amenities like the Kembangan Plaza, which mainly consists of tuition centres, as well as shophouses around the estate. The social welfare of residents are catered for with facilities like the Kwan-In Welfare Free Clinic and the Moral Home for the Disabled in the area. The estate is served by the Kampong Kembangan Community Club, which also serves the wider Kembangan-Chai Chee constituency in the

Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency The Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency was a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) located in the central, eastern and north-eastern areas of Singapore. The constituency consisted of a section of Bedok, Chai Chee, ...

. The Siglap Park Connector which runs to either the

Bedok Reservoir Park Bedok Reservoir (, , ) is a reservoir in the eastern part of Singapore, to the north of Bedok. The reservoir has a surface area of 880,000 m2, and a capacity of 12.8 million m3. The mean depth of the reservoir is 9 m, with a maximum depth of 18.2 ...

or the

East Coast Park East Coast Park is a beach and a park on the southeastern coast of Singapore. It stretches along the south of Marine Parade, Bedok, and Tampines. It was opened in the 1970s, after the Government of Singapore, Singapore government had completed ...

cuts through the area too. There are more amenities located in the nearby

Chai Chee Chai Chee (), also known as Kampong Chai Chee, is a housing estate located in the town of Bedok in Singapore. The estate was named after a village known as Kampong Chai Chee which formerly occupied the vicinity. It is served by two major namesake ...

and Eunos estates. Kembangan has a number of places of worship. Churches include the Bethesda chapel, while temples include the Mangala Vihara Buddhist Temple and Hong San Si Temple. There are three mosques in Kembangan; Masjid Abdul Razak, Masjid Mydin, and

Masjid Kassim Masjid Kassim ( Jawi: مسجد قاسم; ''Kassim Mosque'') is a mosque located at both Joo Chiat and Kembangan within the Bedok planning area and residential town in the East Region, Singapore. It was first built in the 1920s under a waqf scheme ...

. The headquarters of The Buddhist Union is also located in Kembangan. The area falls under the jurisdiction of the Kampong Kembangan Neighbourhood Police Post (NPP), which is part of the Bedok Police Division, and the 2nd

Singapore Civil Defence Force The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is a uniformed organisation in Singapore under the Ministry of Home Affairs (Singapore), Ministry of Home Affairs that provides emergency services such as firefighting, technical rescue, and emergency med ...

DIV HQ.

Education

There are currently no public government schools in the Kembangan estate. There is only a government funded school, the MINDS Towner Gardens School. It is the first purpose built special education school in Singapore, established since 1985. It has been operating from that location since December 1997.

Former schools

* Chin Hua School, from before 1936 to c.1970, formerly located at 503A Changi Road * Kembangan Integrated Primary School (KIPS), from 1963 to 1987, formerly located at 2 Lengkong Satu the current site of MINDS School * Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah, it formerly stood at where Muhammadiyah Association is today from c.1980s to 2005 and now stands at its present location in Toa Payoh * Madrasah Alsagoff Al-Arabiah, it occupied the defunct KIPS premises from 1989 to 1992 and now stands at its present location in Kampong Glam * Madrasah Irsyad or Madrasatul Irsyad Al Islamiyah from 1979, it is managed by Masjid Mydin and is not to be confused with the current Madrasah Al-Irsyad Al-Islamiah

Transportation

The estate is served by the

East West MRT line East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

at the

Kembangan MRT station Kembangan MRT station is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the East–West Line in Bedok, Singapore. Operated by SMRT Trains, the station serves the eponymous Kembangan subzone of Bedok. Other nearby landmarks include the ...

. There are two bus services that serve the estate. They are service 42, which also serves the neighbouring Opera Estate, and service 135. There are more bus services to be found along the one directional Sims Avenue East that lies south of the estate, or the further Changi Road which runs in the opposite direction towards the city.

References

{{Places in Singapore Places in Singapore Bedok