Integrating residential districts, a business park, a university campus, community facilities, and a network of parks and waterbodies, the first ever smart town in Singapore will be Punggol.
The Punggol Digital District (PDD) is slated to become a tech-enabled and sustainable town that demonstrates "the future of living", and aims to transform the way we live, work, learn, and play.
At the groundbreaking ceremony of PDD, and the launch of the PDD exhibition, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean shared the plans for the new smart town.
"Residents can look forward to more jobs and learning opportunities, a greener & smarter home, as well as greater convenience closer to home," he wrote in a post on Facebook.
"PDD will also be a living lab for public agencies and companies to test out new concepts of living, working and delivering services, and demonstrate what a future Singapore can be as a Smart Nation."
In PDD, industry players, the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and public agencies can co-create, test and deploy innovative solutions in areas such as cybersecurity and smart facilities management. The trials conducted will be scaled to guide the development of future new towns and districts such as Tengah and Jurong Lake District. They will also aid in the redevelopment of existing towns across Singapore, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) said in a press statement.
Progressively from 2023, Punggol will serve as a living lab to test out new concepts of living, working and service delivery.
It will be Singapore’s first business park to offer businesses ‘plug and play’ digital infrastructure through the Open Digital Platform (ODP).
Co-developed by ST Engineering, JTC, the Government Technology Agency, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), and Infocomm Media Development Authority, ODP will integrate all smart city technologies and solutions on one platform. This enables real-time information to be collected and used to better manage the district.
With district-level data, businesses and students from SIT can tap on the ODP to conduct rapid prototyping and deployment of technology solutions in a real-world setting. This would translate to cost savings and greater operational efficiency.
As an environmentally sustainable business park, PDD aims to achieve 30 per cent higher energy efficiency than standard commercial buildings, added SNDGO.
The precinct is also looking to generate zero water wastage, with eco-ponds to collect rainwater for irrigation and to be reused as non-potable water, as well as 100 per cent food and horticulture waste recycling into fertiliser.