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Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has unveiled a master plan to double capacity at Southeast Asia's busiest airport and move its massive port to make way for a sprawling new waterfront city.
Lee unveiled plans for a fourth runway at Changi Airport, Southeast Asia's busiest, according to Reuters and Dow Jones Newswires, that will allow the government to move a military airbase in central Singapore to Changi after 2030 and free up 800 hectares of land for homes, factories and businesses.
"This is how we can stay the hub in Southeast Asia and create many more opportunities for Singaporeans," he said, citing competition from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Changi Airport, a base for Singapore Airlines, operates two runways but can take over a third now being used by the military. A fourth runway will be used by the air force, allowing the military to shut its airbase in the central region of Paya Lebar.
Singapore's Changi Airport will also build a fifth terminal by the 2020s as part of the city-state's efforts to tap growing demand for air travel in Southeast Asia, Lee said.
"For the longer term, we are already planning T5," Lee, referring to the new terminal that would be "as big as today's Changi Airport."
The fifth terminal would double Changi Airport's air-passenger capacity when it is completed in the mid-2020s, the prime minister said.
Changi Airport is currently building its fourth terminal, a US$1.02 billion project that would, when completed in 2017, raise the airport's annual capacity to 82 million passengers from 66 million passengers currently.
Singapore's port - the world's second-busiest hub for container shipping - will be moved to a new location in Tuas in western Singapore from 2027. That would free up land in Tanjong Pagar, next to the central business district, for a sprawling new waterfront city, Lee said.
Cargonews Asia
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