Bedok is a neighbourhood in the eastern part of Singapore. Bedok New Town is the fifth Housing and Development Board (HDB) new town; its development started in April 1973 and continued over some 15 years.The Bedok Planning Area, an urban planning zone under the Urban Redevelopment Authority, encompasses the Bedok New Town itself, the low-rise private residential areas along Upper East Coast Road, and in the districts of Kembangan, Siglap and Telok Kurau, and the high-rise private condominium developments in the eastern part of Marine Parade.
“Bedok” seems to be a very old place name. In the 1604 Manuel Gomes de Erédia’s map of Singapore, there is a reference to the Bedok River called sune bodo (Sungei Bedok).Bedok is one of the early native place names in existence around the time of Sir Stamford Raffles. In the first comprehensive map of Singapore Island completed by Frankin and Jackson and reproduced in John Crawfurd’s 1828 book, the place name appears on the south east coast of the island as a river, Badok S. (Sungei Bedok), around the “small red cliff”, a part of present Tanah Merah.The Malay word bedoh refers to a type of slit drum made from a large hollowed log for calling people to a mosque for prayers or to sound the alarm in the days before loudspeakers. There was a prominent mosque in the 1950s at Jalan Bilal that still used the drum about five times a day. The “h” in the word bedoh was replaced with a “k”, and, as with most Malay words that end with a “k”, it is pronounced with an inaudible glottal stop.A less popular version refers to an equally uncommon Malay term of biduk, a small fishing boat like the sampan, or more likely, a dugout canoe, as the east coast was dotted with many fishing villages.
Bedok New Town
Bedok New Town covers a land area close to 9.4 km² with some 42% occupied for residential use. It was formerly a hilly region and hence the focal point of orientation of the town is the special landscaped park and sports complex built on the higher ground of the town. The residential blocks as well as the industrial area are planned based on the neighbourhood concept.
Residential development
There are some 58,000 units of flats built by the HDB in Bedok New Town. As one of the older towns, the majority of the flats are 3-room or 4-room. There are also some 2,700 and 583 units of executive and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDC) flats. It provides housing for some 200,000 residents.
Transportation
The Mass Rapid Transit station, Bedok MRT Station, serves the Bedok neighborhood and is centrally located, at the south-west corner of Bedok Town Center. Adjacent to the MRT station on the north side is the Bedok Interchange, a major bus terminal connecting residents with both intra-neighborhood feeder routes and intercity bus lines.
Bedok Reservoir
(Chinese: 勿洛蓄水池; pinyin: Wùluò Xùshuǐchí) is a reservoir located in the eastern part of Singapore, to the north of Bedok New Town. 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 m. The shoreline length is 4.3 km.
Bedok Reservoir was constructed under the Sungei Seletar/Bedok Water Scheme, completed in 1986. The scheme involved the damming ofSungei Seletar to form a reservoir (Lower Seletar Reservoir), the creation of Bedok Reservoir from a former sand quarry between 1966 and 1972 and the construction of Bedok Waterworks. The earth excavated was used for East Coast Reclamation in the 1970s (HDB Annual Reports). Its unique feature was the construction of nine stormwater collection stations to tap the storm runoffs of the surrounding urbanised catchments. Eight of these collection stations are ponds at Yishun, Tampines, Bedok and Yan Kit new towns.
Bedok Reservoir is now open to water sports activities such as wakeboarding, sailing, fishing, canoeing and kayaking. This follows the Singapore Sports Council’s (SSC’s) efforts to allow water sport enthusiasts to make use of the various reservoirs for activities which do not compromise the quality of the water. The programme kicked off with the HSBC Wakeboard World Cup, Singapore 2004, held at Bedok Reservoir on October 30-31 2004. This was the first international water sports event to be held at a local reservoir.
The hill on the west part of Bedok Reservoir is a popular place to fly model gliders.
Bedok Reservoir Park
The Bedok Reservoir Park was developed around the picturesque and serene Bedok Reservoir. The park is equipped with a jogging track, a children’s playground, fitness stations and open fields. The park is popular for outdoor activities like inline skating, cycling, fishing and jogging. Jogathons are held regularly at the park by schools and organisations. The area of the park is 417,000 m².The park is accessible from Bedok Reservoir Road.
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