Singapore is going underground to build up its infrastructure.
From rail lines
and service reservoirs
to ammunition bunkers
and rock caverns for storing hydrocarbons.
It’s clear opportunities are underfoot, literally, for the country to make full use of its limited land.
Singapore: Life underground
There are already plans to build more essential infrastructure below the surface, but will this mean us living there too? Find out in our interactive.
Kevin Kwang | Aug 28, 2025
Singapore has built extensive underground networks for rail, sewerage and electricity transmission systems, with around 300km of tunnels constructed already.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said it plans to add around 60km more in the next decade, according to its media materials during the launch of the Draft Master Plan 2025 in June this year.
Bencoolen MRT is currently the deepest train station in the country at 43m below ground.
Elsewhere, the country’s first underground service reservoir1 came online in 2024.
It is located 9m below a neighbourhood park in Bidadari, and serves 8,800 households in the area when fully operational.
But going beyond these projects is the Jurong Rock Caverns.
Located 150m below ground, the caverns was opened by then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in September 2014.
Developer JTC says it is the first commercial underground rock caverns facility to store liquid hydrocarbons in Southeast Asia. This helps free up land of around 70 football fields.
And there could be more to come.
Authorities are exploring the feasibility of building another underground cavern for storing construction materials at Gali Batu, within the Gali Batu industrial estate next to Sungei Kadut.
They are also looking at whether larger infrastructure for water and energy can be housed below ground.
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