Seletar

SG neighbourhood
image

englishname=Seletar
chinesename=实里达
pinyin=Shílǐdá
malayname=Seletar
tamilname="fill in"

Seletar is an area of Singapore within its North-East Region. Seletar commonly refers to the areas south of Yishun and west of Sungei Punggol, covering Yio Chu Kang near Jalan Kayu (where there is Seletar Road), the Lower Seletar Reservoir and part of Upper Thomson (which is near to the Upper Seletar Reservoir).

The Seletar Planning Area, an urban planning zone under the Urban Redevelopment Authority, covers only the area between Lower Seletar Reservoir and Sungei Punggol, north of the Tampines Expressway, and the reclaimed islands of Pulau Punggol Barat and Pulau Punggol Timor.

Seletar is the site of the Seletar Airport. A new S$60 million Seletar Aerospace Park that spans 140 hectares will be built at Seletar, and is expected to be completed in 2018. The aerospace park will house industries specialising in aircraft maintenance and repair services.cite news | author = Karamjit Kaur | title = Plans for $60m Seletar Aerospace Park on course | publisher = "The Straits Times" | date = 19 June 2007] cite news | author = Karamjit Kaur | title = Seletar gets ready for makeover as aerospace hub | publisher = "The Straits Times" | date = 27 June 2007]

Etymology

"Seletar" is probably one of the older local place names. The Malay word "seletar" refers to the aboriginal coastal dwellers ("orang laut") called "orang seletar", who lived along the mangrove creeks of the Johor Straits and especially at the mouth of the Seletar River (which has since been dammed up to form the Lower Seletar Reservoir), hence the river's name. Later, Sultan Abu Baker of Johor is said to have taken these people from Seletar to Sungai Pulai in southwest Johor.

Franklin and Jackson's 1830 "Plan of Singapore" makes reference to the "River Saleta". In the mid-nineteenth century, the editor, Cameron (1865:86-88) notes that the East India Company maintained a small wood and attap bungalow for its company's servants nine miles from town at Selita.

In Chinese, Seletar is "koon kung", or naval base.

History

Seletar, now Thomson Road, was first cut in the 1840s.

The British naval and air bases were in Seletar. The decision to build the base was made in 1921. Work started in 1927, with the mangrove swamps being filled in, hills removed and rubber trees cut down. The work was completed in the early 1930s. Seletar was the first Royal Air Force base east of India and the first civilian airport in Singapore.

The Seletar Reservoir, now the Upper Seletar Reservoir, was built in 1935.

References

*Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2003), "Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names", Eastern Universities Press, ISBN 981-210-205-1

ee also

*RAF Seletar