At yesterday's Parliament Sitting, Ms Ellen Lee Geck Hoon asked the Ministry of National Developement for an update on the implementation of the Barrier-Free Accessibility Upgrading Programme in the city area and across all housing estates.

Mr Mah Bow Tan, the Minister for National Development said: "MND is committed to making our built environment barrier-free, so that the elderly and those with disabilities can stay engaged with the community-at-large.

There are around 450 buildings in the Orchard Road, Bras Basah and Shenton Way areas. About half of them have the basic barrier-free features . The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) is actively engaging the other building owners to bring about more widespread adoption of accessibility features. BCA has a $40 million Accessibility Fund to co-fund accessibility upgrades. Of the 15 funding applications that have so far been approved, 9 are for buildings in the city area.

At the same time, new buildings and those that undertake major retrofitting have to comply with the mandatory requirements of BCA's Accessibility Code. In Orchard Road, the Meritus Mandarin Hotel and Orchard Emerald are examples of some of the buildings that will comply with the Code after major retrofitting or redevelopment.

For housing estates, HDB is working with CCCs and TCs on a 5-year masterplan to make all HDB estates barrier-free by 2011. We are on track to achieving this goal. As at July 2008, barrier-free works for 36% of HDB precincts have been completed. This represents 272 precincts with 2,870 blocks."