Bukit Batok

Bukit Batok ( ), often abbreviated as Bt Batok, is a planning area and residential town located in the eastern part of the West Region of Singapore. Bukit Batok statistically ranks in as the 25th largest, the 10th most populous and the 9th most densely populated planning area in Singapore.

Bukit Batok largely sits on Gombak norite, a geological formation that is found in high concentrations within the planning area itself, as well as in the western parts of neighbouring Cashew. It was this presence of the igneous rock that made Bukit Batok a pivotal location for the quarrying industry in Singapore around the turn of the mid-20th century.

Etymology

Many differing accounts describe the origin of the name Bukit Batok. Bukit means "hill" in Malay, thus the name of the town gives the impression of it being hilly. Batok, however, has several interpretations.

One version, according to a Javanese village chief of the village Gassing, that coconut trees grew in the hilly area and hence the area was named batok, the Javanese term for coconuts.

The Chinese version is that the hills of solid granite, which is called batu in Malay, and then subsequently misnamed as bato and then finally batok.

Consequently, the British's plans to industrialize Bukit Timah was short-lived and put to an abrupt halt during World War II. The factories that were built before 1942 were swiftly taken over by the Japanese during their occupation of Singapore. Ford Factory, which sits at the bottom of the Bukit Batok Hill, was occupied by Nissan, the Japanese Multination Corporation, to supply military vehicles for the Imperial Japanese Army Force. Both Bukit Batok hill (current day Bukit Batok Nature Park) and Bukit Timah hill were considered as strategic hill grounds during the Japanese occupation. These locations were key to controlling the surrounding areas and thus were the site of the fiercest battles of the war.

Following the successful conquest of Singapore, General Yamashita ordered 500 Australian prisoners of war to construct a Japanese war memorial, Syonan Chureito shrine, at the top of Bukit Batok Hill. Throughout the Japanese occupation, the Japanese officials and military personnel would frequently worship their emperor in the Syonan Chureito shrine. In addition, footages of these ceremonies would be broadcast as propaganda in Japan to ensure the citizens’ continuous support for the war. However, the shrine was ultimately destroyed by the Japanese themselves at the end of the World War II as they feared that the honour of the memorial would be tarnished by the returning British troops.

After World War II, the British returned to Singapore. The areas around Ford Factory became known as the British's ‘colonial estate factories’ as the British resumed their plans to industrialize Bukit Batok. In addition to the development of factories, Bukit Batok began to be extensively quarried for granite. The Poh Kim Quarry, which lies in the heart of Bukit Batok Nature Park today, was one of the quarry sites in the vicinity. It was quarried for granite between the 1950s to the 1970s but was later abandoned due to the damage that the activities was causing to the Earth's core.

After Singapore gained independence in 1965, the newly formed People's Action Party (PAP) government aggressively promoted the site as a lightweight industrial area.

Development of Bukit Batok New Town began in December 1975,

Geography

Location

Bukit Batok Planning Area is bordered by six other planning areas - Choa Chu Kang to the north and northwest, Bukit Panjang to the northeast and east, Clementi to the south, Bukit Timah to the southeast, Jurong East to the southwest and Tengah to the west.

Bukit Batok New Town is located within Bukit Batok Planning Area.

Subzones

Bukit Batok Planning Area is divided into nine subzones:

{| class="wikitable"

!Estate

!Location

!Notable places

!Accessibility

|Brickworks

|Areas bounded by Bukit Batok Road, Bukit Batok West Avenue 2 and Bukit Batok West Avenue 3

|Millennia Institute, Dulwich College Singapore and Bukit Batok Hillside Park

|Buses and Tengah Park MRT station (future)

|Bukit Batok Central

|Areas bounded by Bukit Batok West Avenue 6, Bukit Batok West Avenue 3, Bukit Batok Central, Bukit Batok East Avenue 3 and Bukit Batok East Avenue 6

|Bukit Batok MRT station, Bukit Batok Bus Interchange, Bukit Batok Community Club, Bukit Batok Library, West Mall, Bukit Batok Polyclinic, Bukit View Secondary School, Keming Primary School, Ling Hong Tong and Bukit Batok Joint Temple

|Bukit Batok MRT station and buses

|Bukit Batok East

|Areas bounded by Bukit Batok East Avenue 2, Bukit Batok East Avenue 3, Bukit Batok East Avenue 4, Bukit Batok East Avenue 5 and Bukit Batok East Avenue 6

|Bukit Batok East Community Club and Bukit Batok Neighbourhood Police Centre, Hock Thong Temple, See Thian Foh Temple and Masjid Ar-Raudhah Mosque

|Buses

|Bukit Batok South

|Areas bounded by Bukit Batok East Avenue 1, 3 and 6; the Pan-Island Expressway, Toh Tuck Road and the western side of the landed houses along Jalan Jurong Kechil

|Bukit Batok Swimming Complex and Bukit Batok Bus Depot

|Buses

|Bukit Batok West

|Areas bounded by Bukit Batok Road, Bukit Batok West Avenue 3, Bukit Batok West Avenue 6, Bukit Batok Avenue 1 and the Pan-Island Expressway.

|Bukit Batok Secondary School, Princess Elizabeth Primary School, Guilin Combined Temple, Sattha Puchaniyaram Buddhist Temple and Bukit Batok Providence Presbyterian Church

|Buses and Bukit Batok West MRT station (future)

|Gombak

|Northern Bukit Batok

|Bukit Panjang MRT station, Cashew MRT station and Bukit Gombak Community Centre

|Bukit Panjang MRT station, Cashew MRT station and buses

|Guilin

|Areas to the immediate north of Bukit Batok Central

|Bukit Gombak MRT station, Bukit Batok Town Park, Bukit Gombak Stadium, Hillgrove Secondary School and Lianhua Primary School

|Bukit Gombak MRT station and buses

|Hillview

|Eastern Bukit Batok

|Hillview MRT station, Old Ford Motor Factory and Bukit Batok Nature Park

|Hillview MRT station, Hume MRT station and buses

|Hong Kah North

|Areas bounded by Bukit Batok Road, Bukit Batok West Avenue 2 and Bukit Batok West Avenue 5

|Bukit Batok Driving Centre, Hong Kah North Community Club, Swiss Cottage Secondary School, Dunearn Secondary School, Saint Anthony's Primary School, Zu-Lin Temple and Dazhong Primary School

|Bukit Gombak MRT station and buses

Demographics

Population history

As of 2025, the most populous subzone of Bukit Batok is Brickworks, with a population of 30,920 residents.

Ethnicity

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ Ethnic groups in Bukit Batok (2000−2020)

! rowspan="2" |Year

! colspan="2" |Chinese

! colspan="2" |Malays

! colspan="2" |Indians

! colspan="2" |Others

!Percentage

| 2000

| 93,502

| 21,564

| 10,546

| 1,031

| 2010

| 104,266

| 20,482

| 15,257

| 4,193

| 2015

| 102,080

| 19,570

| 13,730

| 3,900

| 2020 The HDB Branch is located at Bukit Batok Central.

Education

, this area has a total of six primary schools and five secondary schools. These include Princess Elizabeth Primary School, Keming Primary School, Lianhua Primary School, St. Anthony's Primary School, Bukit View Primary School, Dazhong Primary School, Bukit View Secondary School, Bukit Batok Secondary School, Hillgrove Secondary School, Dunearn Secondary School. Yusof Ishak Secondary School relocated from Bukit Batok to its Punggol campus in 2022.

Millennia Institute, formed from the merger of Jurong Institute and Outram Institute, moved to its new campus off Bukit Batok West Avenue 3 in January 2007. Bukit Batok is also home to Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre (SHATEC).

Recreation

thumb|Bukit Batok Stadium from the air. Shot in 2014.

The Bukit Batok swimming complex is located off East Avenue 6. There are many parks in the neighborhood, including the Bukit Batok Town Park and the Bukit Batok Nature Park.

The CDANS Bukit Batok Country Club, for reservist members of the Civil Defence forces and their families, was opened in 1998. It offers a golf driving range, swimming pool, bowling alley and sports facilities for relatively affordable prices.

The Civil Service Club Bukit Batok Clubhouse offers swimming, bowling and related recreational facilities to civil servants, their families and the public. It is located near Bukit Batok Town Centre and was opened on 1 March 2006.

Politics

The jurisdiction of Bukit Batok is shared by the Jurong East-Bukit Batok Group Representation Constituency (Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC), which has an office at Bukit Batok Central and manages much of Bukit Batok; Bukit Gombak SMC and Chua Chu Kang Group Representation Constituency (Chua Chu Kang GRC), which manages areas north of Bukit Batok West Avenue 3 and Bukit Batok Central. There are five members of Parliament representing various areas in Bukit Batok.

The Bukit Batok SMC was a standalone single-member constituency by itself prior to the 1991 elections, which was later mainly consolidated into Jurong GRC until being carved out as an SMC in 2015. In 2025, Bukit Batok SMC was again consolidated into a GRC, this time renaming it to Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRC to incorporate the SMC. Its current MPs were Ministers of State Rahayu Mahzam and Murali Pillai. Previously, Bukit Batok was under the constituent of Chai Chong Yii when Bukit Batok SMC was formed in 1972, followed by Ong Chit Chung from 1988 until his death in office in 2008 and fellow Bukit Batok East MP Halimah Yacob caretake this area for the time being. David Ong succeeded the late Ong in 2011, but later vacated in March 2016 pertaining to an affair; Murali, a former branch secretary for Bukit Batok and a member part of the Aljunied GRC in 2015, has since represented the area following his by-election victory in May 2016.

Bukit Gombak was a part of Chua Chu Kang GRC. Senior Ministers of State Low Yen Ling had been representing there from 2011 to 2025. In 2025, Bukit Gombak became a SMC for the first time since 1997 while most of Hong Kah North was absorbed into either Chua Chu Kang and Jurong East-Bukit Batok GRCs. Currently, Low, Lee Hong Chuang (who previously contested Hougang SMC in the 2015 and 2020 elections) and Tan See Leng represent the Bukit Gombak areas following the election.