What’s happening in Tanjong Pagar

 

A controversy was highlighted last year when Member of Parliament Christopher de Souza told Parliament he was surprised to see prostitutes lining the streets while he was having dinner along Duxton Road, around the Tanjong Pagar area.

Mr de Souza, who represents Ulu Pandan, asked if more financial resources would be available to tackle the problem of the growing number of street walkers in the area.

He noted that the number of foreign prostitutes arrested in 2006 was 4,310. This was a 34 per cent increase from 2005.

Then last year, the number of foreign prostitutes arrested went up to 5,400, a further 25 per cent rise.

He said: 'Bids to contain the trade in Geylang have not been successful. An evening drive down Duxton Road and Duxton Hill will prove that prostitutes operate well beyond the artificial borders of Geylang.

'Prostitution is working itself into our heartlands.'

To laughter, he assured the House that he drove by the area with his wife.

He added that many of these sex workers came on two-week social visit passes, and just before the fortnight was up, they would leave for Johor Baru, only to return to Singapore the same day.

The problem was so bad, he had received feedback that sexual services were being offered at shops claiming to offer massage.

He asked what concrete steps the Ministry of Home Affairs would take to curb this and strengthen the anti-vice squad with additional manpower and intelligence officers to hunt vice syndicates and clamp down on their operations.

Tanjong Pagar is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urban planning zones.

Tanjong Pagar is located in the south of Singapore

In the mid-1980s, Tanjong Pagar became the first area in Singapore to be gazetted under the government's conservation plan. When the conservation project was completed, many of the area's shophouses were restored to their original appearance.

But although a few traces of the old Tanjong Pagar remain — an old swimming pool, the odd street cobbler — the face of Tanjong Pagar has changed.

Today, Tanjong Pagar has become a fashionable district, filled with thriving businesses, cafés, bars and restaurants.