Current Time in Jurong West, Singapore

Jurong West lies in the western part of Singapore, between the industrial estates along the coast and the reservoirs and parkland of the island's interior. It is one of the largest and most populous of the country's planned new towns, home to around two hundred and sixty thousand people living mostly in public housing built and managed by the Housing and Development Board.

The area was swamp, plantation and fishing village until the 1960s, when the newly independent government chose western Singapore for an ambitious industrial programme. Factories, shipyards and later petrochemical plants transformed the coast, and housing had to follow for the workers who filled them. Jurong West New Town was laid out from the late 1970s onwards in a series of neighbourhoods, each with its own shops, markets, schools and community centre, arranged around a town centre at Boon Lay.

That centre is anchored by one of the largest suburban shopping malls in Singapore, joined directly to a mass rapid transit station and a bus interchange, so that thousands of residents pass through it daily. Around it stand food courts, hawker centres and wet markets that reflect the multi-ethnic character of the population, with Chinese, Malay, Indian and other communities sharing the same blocks under Singapore's housing policy.

The town's most attractive feature is its water and greenery. Jurong Lake Gardens, opened in stages from 2019 as Singapore's third national gardens, surround the lake with wetlands, boardwalks, forests and playgrounds, and incorporate the older Chinese and Japanese Gardens with their pagodas, stone bridges and carefully raked landscapes. The Science Centre Singapore, with its hands-on exhibits, planetarium and adjoining attractions, has introduced generations of schoolchildren to science and stands beside the gardens. Government planners have designated the wider area the Jurong Lake District, intended to become a second commercial centre for the island, with offices, hotels and new public spaces rising over the coming decades.

Education is a major presence. Nanyang Technological University occupies a large wooded campus at the western edge of the town, ranked among the leading universities in Asia and known for engineering, materials science and its striking modern architecture. Junior colleges, polytechnic campuses and many schools serve younger students, and student residences give parts of the district a youthful atmosphere.

Transport is excellent. Several stations on the east-west rail line run through the town, a new regional line is under construction to serve western neighbourhoods more directly, and expressways connect Jurong West to the city centre in about half an hour and to the causeway to Malaysia.

Employment lies close at hand in the industrial estates, the port and Jurong Island's petrochemical complex, as well as in the town's own shops, schools and services.

Practical, green and constantly evolving, Jurong West shows how Singapore has combined industry, housing and public space on a very small island.