Former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station's canopies back after six years

Platform shelters had been cut up, moved elsewhere so MRT station could be built

- Ng Keng Gene

The shelters that covered the platforms at the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station will soon be fully reassembled, with reinstatement works under way since July 2023.

The last of the 63 platform canopy panels – each weighing about 60 tonnes, including a temporary supporting steel frame – is slated to be moved back to its original location on March 15, more than six years after the two canopies were cut up and relocated so that Cantonment MRT station in Circle Line Stage 6 (CCL6) could be built under the former railway station’s platform.

In 2016, the authorities announced that the iconic canopies would be reinstated after works on Cantonment station were finished, as the structures are important to the history and memories of the former railway station, which was completed in 1931 and is today a national monument.

The reinstatement works, which include building new platforms and reinstalling rainwater pipes, are slated to run till 2025. Since the project began in 2017, about 70 per cent of the relocation, restoration and reinstatement works have been completed, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) told The Straits Times on March 12.

Providing an update on CCL6, the LTA said that about 88 per cent of civil construction works are complete, and that the line’s three latest stations – Keppel, Cantonment and Prince Edward Road – are on track to open in 2026.

The construction of underground stations and associated tunnels for CCL6 has been “substantially completed”, LTA said. It added that the construction of entrances and above-ground structures, and architectural, electrical and mechanical works are ongoing.

On March 8, the media had a behind-the-scenes look at one of the 63 platform canopy panels being brought back from a storage yard about 700m away from its original location.