Tampines New Town 5.91

Tampines is a planning area and residential town located in the East Region of Singapore. The planning area is bordered by Bedok and Paya Lebar to the west, Pasir Ris to the north, Changi to the east and the Singapore Straits to the south. Tampines New Town is located in the northern portion of Tampines planning area. Tampines is the third largest new town in Singapore by area, covering over 2089 hectares of land and also is the third most populated new town, following Bedok and Jurong West. It is the regional centre for the East Region.HistoryIn the past, Tampines was covered by forests, swamp and sand quarries. Ironwood trees, or tempinis, grew abundantly here and thus gave the area its name. It was part of military training area until about 1987.The name Tampines goes back to the Franklin and Jackson map of 1828. It is named after Sungei Tampenus, which in turn got its name from the tampines trees (Streblus elongatus) which were said to be growing there. The oldest street in the area, Tampines Road, dates to 1864, when it was a cart tract. At the turn of the 20th century, Tampines was a rubber plantation. Tampines is also home to the sand quarry for a long time. Among the plantations were Teo Tek Ho and Hun Yeang estates.