Southern Islands
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Southern Islands

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Southern Islands

The Southern Islands is a planning area consisting of a collection of islets located within the Central Region of Singapore, once home to the native Malay islanders and indigenous Orang Laut sea nomad tribes before they were relocated to the mainland for urban redevelopment and future use. The islands that form the planning area are Kusu Island, Lazarus Island, Pulau Seringat, Pulau Tekukor, Saint John's Island, Sentosa and the two Sisters' Islands. The islands encompass a total land area of about 5.58 square kilometres (2.15 sq mi). The Sentosa Development Corporation oversaw the development and maintenance of these offshore islands south of Singapore from 1976 to March 2017, when it handed it back to the Singapore Land Authority.

The Southern Islands planning area is situated on the Singapore Straits, south of the mainland planning area of Bukit Merah. It also shares maritime boundary with the Western Islands planning area. The planning area has two subzones: Sentosa and the Southern Group, the latter of which includes all the major islands except Sentosa.

In 1996, the Singapore government planned to develop the southern islands with waterfront housing on Sentosa, Pulau Seringat and Lazarus Island. The rest of the islands were to be developed with recreational facilities and hotels. New jetties were to be built with a Light Rapid Transit system connecting Sentosa Cove to the mainland and water taxis for the rest of the islands. Pulau Seringat and Lazarus Island were also planned to be merged as a single island.

As part of the Singapore Tourism Board's (STB) plan to develop the other Southern Islands after Sentosa, land reclamation was started in 2000 to link Pulau Seringat and Lazarus Island. The reclamation created a sand bank between the two islands, forming a lagoon that has an unobstructed seaview.

Pulau Seringat, which is now part of the extended Lazarus Island, now has an 800-metre stretch of beach. Thousands of cubic metres of sand, checked for sandfly eggs, was imported from Indonesia to make the beach. 1,000 mature coconut trees were also planted to add to the island feel of the place.

A causeway connecting Lazarus Island and Saint John's Island was also built to make the three islands more accessible and help attract more visitors.

Previously a shoal that was barely visible at high tide, Kias is now an island that houses an electricity generator with enough capacity to support the other three islands.

The reclamation took six years to complete and cost S$60 million. Another S$120 million was spent to bring water, electricity, gas and telecommunication infrastructure from Sentosa to the islands. The submarine services link consists of a 1.2-kilometre trench holding utility lines that lie 17 metres underwater. It links Sentosa Cove to Kias Island, and is protected underneath 50,000 tonnes of rock. It holds two 12-inch (30 cm) gas pipelines, two 12-inch (30 cm) water pipelines, four 22 kV power cables and four 96 core fibre optic cables for telecommunications.

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