By 2013, there will be a new green link between the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Central Catchment Area.
Conservationists had long bemoaned the separation of the two reserves by the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) since its construction in 1986. The road prevented plant and animal species from moving between the two forest tracts.
The new eco-passage will arch over the 50m-wide BKE and be sited at a suitable narrow point between the reserves. Its construction was announced on Saturday at the opening of the National Parks Board’s Dairy Farm Nature Park.
A tender will be called at the end of this year and construction will start next year.
The bridge, 50m wide at its narrowest point and planted with dense trees resembling a forest habitat, could help populations of animals like the critically-endangered banded leaf monkey to recover.
Four to six years ago, there were thought to be fewer than 20 of the small dark-furred monkeys – a number too small to be sustainable – but now there are about 30 living around the Central Catchment Area.
The eco-link could help them migrate to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve to find other food sources.
A hiking trail at one edge will also enable humans to move between the reserves.
National University of Singapore conservation biologist Navjot Sodhi said of the bridge: ‘Every plan to connect habitats is a good plan but how it pans out – only time will tell.’
‘I hope NParks will do surveys to see how species are moving between the reserves,’ he added.
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