SINGAPORE – A new main contractor has been appointed for the Punggol Point Cove Build-To-Order (BTO) project, a month after the Housing Board terminated the services of its previous contractor due to unsatisfactory progress.
HDB on Tuesday appointed Qingjian International (South Pacific) Group Development Co. to take over the project from CKR Contract Services.
Works on the site will resume progressively from end August, HDB said in a statement on Wednesday.
All six blocks are expected to be ready between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025 – no change from when The Straits Times reported in July that the completion dates of five of the six blocks at Punggol Point Cove under phase two of the project would be pushed back by three months due to the termination.
This was on top of delays of between six and nine months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
CKR’s contract had been terminated due to unsatisfactory progress and a repeated failure to meet necessary construction targets, HDB had said in an e-mail sent to buyers. This was despite frequent engagement and HDB’s best efforts to facilitate the progress of work with the contractor, it added.
The Punggol Point Cove project has a total of 1,179 two-room flexi, three-room, four-room and five-room units.
The phase two flats were launched for sale in September 2019. Phase one was launched a year earlier in August 2018 and is being built by a different main contractor.
On Wednesday, an HDB spokesman said it will extend the necessary assistance to Qingjian to ensure a smooth transition and resumption of works.
She added that HDB will work closely with the contractor to complete phase two of the BTO project based on the revised timelines, while ensuring that safety and quality are not compromised.
“HDB understands the inconvenience and difficulties that any delay in the completion of our flats may cause to flat buyers. We continue to seek their understanding and patience as we work hard to deliver their homes.”
Mr Kelvin Ng, 29, who is waiting for his four-room BTO flat with his fiancee, said he hopes the new contractor will meet the completion date despite the delays.
“If there are further delays, I would expect some form of compensation,” said Mr Ng, who works in finance. “Covid-19 is unfortunate and beyond anyone’s control, but HDB should choose a reliable contractor.”
A buyer of a five-room flat, who declined to be named, said she had been going to the project’s construction site at least once a month since 2020 to check on its progress.
“I could only see the tall cranes but not the blocks being built. It has been like that for a very long time,” she said.
“GST is going up next year and I’ll need to pay a lot more for things for the home,” she added. She had expected to get the keys to her flat by the fourth quarter of 2023 – the completion date buyers were given at the sales launch.
Punggol BTO flats further delayed after contractor’s services axed over ‘unsatisfactory’ progress
HDB projects delayed by Covid-19 expected to be completed by early 2025
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