Bukit Panjang is Malay for a long spread of hills

[Cecil Lee]

Bukit Panjang is Malay for "a long spread of hills". It is also the name of part of a range of low hills that run from Mandai, in the north of Singapore to Bukit Timah in the south.

Forty years ago, the area was occupied by farms, granite quarries and fatories that produced household goods. There was a shoe factory, a factory for canning food and a dairy farm owned by supermarket chain Cold Storage, after which Dairy Farm Road was named.

Bukit Panjang Village was found at a roundabout that linked Woodlands, Bukit Timah and Choa Chu Kang roads.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Government cleared the area around Bukit Panjang Village and built Housing Board flats. The names of roads and dirt tracks around the village, such as Jelebu, Segar, Jelapang, Petir, Senja, Pending and Fajar, were revived when Bukit Panjang New Town was built.

In 1999, they were also used to name the stations in the LRT system (attachment) that connects with Choa Chu Kang MRT station.

In 2015, look out for the Bukit Panjang MRT station, which will be the start of the new Downtown Line. It will be located between Ten Mile Junction and the Bukit Panjang LRT stations.