Singapore History Part 3

Now, I'll continue with North-East Line... We are proud to have NEL coz it's the world's first automated heavy rail system !!! =D

North-East Line (NEL)
HarbourFront: Formerly known as WTC or World Trade Centre, the name reflects on the vicinity of the area, harbourfront centre...

Kampung Bahru (future station): NIL

Outram Park: named after sir James Outram

Chinatown: This place is where chinese used to reside. Chinese imigrants settled here. In chinese, chinatown is also known as Niu Che Sui, literally " ox-cart water" because of its location, chinatown's water supply was principally transported by animal-driven carts in 19th century.

Clarke Quay: It was named after Sir Andrew Clarke, singapore's second governor & governor of the straits settlements from 1873 to 1875.

Dhoby Ghaut: or Dhobi Ghat, literally means washing place in Hindi, from Dhobi-literally meaning washerman or one that does laundry and Ghat- generically meaning large open space.

Little India: This area is where majority of Indians lived. It is reported to have developed around a former settlement for indian convicts. Its location near serangoon river originally made it attractive for cattle raising while trade & live stock was once prominent in the area.

Farrer Park: It is named after R.F Farrer, who was municipal Assessor and later President of the Municipal Commissioners in the 1920s.

Boon Keng: It was named after Lim Boon Keng, a chinese doctor of chinese peranakan descent.

Potong Pasir: The area was once dominated by sand-quarries. Hence, giving its present name, which means " cut sand" in malay.

Woodleigh ( not opened yet) : NIL

Serangoon: located at the junction of upper seranggon rd & serangoon central, the etymology of the word is uncertain.. It was probably derived from a small marsh bird, the burong ranggong, which was common in the swamps of the serangoon river.On early maps of singapore, the name of the area is called seranggong.

Kovan: NIL

Hougang: It is a pinyin version of Au-kang, a hokkien & Teochew name meaning "river end". the area was once a large piece of forested land. farming of pigs were also carried out by farmers.

Buangkok: it derived from Lorong Buangkok, which buangkok means united. This area is where rubber plantation used to settle here.

Sengkang: It means "prosperous harbour" in chinese. Vegetable & pig farms used to locate here dominated by tropical rainforest.

Punggol: spelt as ponggol, it means hurling sticks at the branches of fruit trees to bring them down in malay. Punggol was once a fruit growing district. There are suggestions that this word is in tamil (pongal) which means the feast of boiling rice. however, punggol is a malay word, not tamil !!! =D

Next week, I'll continue with 3 different LRT lines in singapore namely Bukit Panjang, Sengkang & Punggol...=D

(source of information: Wikipedia )