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The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will introduce a new set of rules which will require owners of existing commercial and institutional buildings to provide basic accessibility when they carry out addition and alteration works, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday (27 July).
Speaking at the launch of the Singapore Universal Design Week 2016, Mr Wong said building owners “need to minimally provide a barrier-free building entry, accessibility on the level of entry and an accessible washroom as a minimal requirement.
Slated to kick in some time next year, the new rules will apply to commercial and institutional buildings that are frequently visited by the public.
“There are still many, many older buildings which are not accessible, and this is the larger stock of existing buildings,” said Mr Wong, noting that most of them were built before 1990.
He said there’s one in four existing commercial and institutional building in Singapore that is still not accessible today, effectively posing as “a ‘last mile’ problem in facilitating seamless travel.
This is particularly important as one in eight Singaporeans is 65 years old and above, Mr Wong said, noting that the figure will double to one in four in 15 years.
To support building owners who wish to upgrade and retrofit their buildings, Mr Wong said the BCA will also extend its Accessibility Fund, which was supposed to expire by March next year, to March 2022.
The fund’s scope of coverage will also be expanded to include more types of accessibility features such as those for visually and hearing impaired persons like braille signage and hearing loops.
Moreover, building owners can tap on the fund for a second time, to a maximum cap of S$300,000.
“In many Government schemes today we avoid double-dipping, you apply once that’s it, you cannot apply again. But since we are broadening the scope of the Fund, we will now allow past beneficiaries of the Fund to apply a second time,” Mr Wong said.
Nikki De Guzman, Editor at CommercialGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email nikki@propertyguru.com.sg
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