I REFER to the Nov 9 letter by Mr Daniel Kwek, 'What's the rationale? - The 200 blocks were not given the option of lift upgrading, yet Jurong East Town Council is installing a lift in its two-storey office'.

Block 255 Jurong East St 24A is a commercial block which houses the Jurong Town Council, Jurong East Branch Office, a tuition centre, and a childcare centre, among others. As human traffic is high, a lift was installed to better serve the users of the commercial facilities there. It was a commercial decision as investments in the building will be recovered from rental collection over time.

The decision to install a lift in Block 255 Jurong East Street 24 is a commercial one. The lift is fully paid for by HDB as the owner of the commercial building. Like landlords of other commercial buildings, HDB continually maintains and upgrades its commercial buildings to better serve patrons and to attract and retain tenants.

This is unlike the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) for HDB blocks, where the cost is heavily subsidised by the Government. Given the massive scale of the LUP, the Government has to exercise financial prudence and impose a cost cap for eligibility. In this way, more households can benefit from the programme.

We thank the writer for his feedback.

Lim Huat Eng
Deputy Director
(Commercial Properties Management)
Housing and Development Board

This article was first published in The Straits Times.