Little India MRT station

Little India MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North East (NEL) and Downtown (DTL) lines. The station is located at the junction of Bukit Timah Road and Race Course Road, and serves the ethnic neighbourhood of Little India. Several landmarks surrounding the station include KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Tekka Market, and the Land Transport Authority headquarters.

First announced as Kandang Kerbau MRT station, the construction required the use of metal decks to maintain traffic flow in the area. Skeletons with gold jewellery were also found during the station's construction. The NEL station opened on 20 June 2003. In March 2007, it was announced that the NEL will interchange with the DTL at this station. The DTL platforms opened on 27 December 2015 as part of Stage 2 of the line.

The station was designed to reflect Indian traditions, especially with the leaf-shaped patterns in the metal grills of the walls and the flowing fabric theme inspired by the Indian sari for the DTL station. Two Art-in-Transit artworks are featured at this station – Memoirs of the Past by S. Chandrasekaran and Woven Field by Grace Tan.

North East line
In preliminary studies for the North East line (NEL) in 1986, it was planned for the line to serve the Kandang Kerbau Hospital as it parallels the major Serangoon and Upper Serangoon Roads. The line was not considered financially viable in 1989; it was only in 1996 that the government approved plans to construct the line "immediately".

The station was first announced as "Kandang Kerbau" when the 16 NEL stations were revealed by communications minister Mah Bow Tan in March 1996. Residents near the station welcomed the news as they hoped that the station would give the district a 'new lease of life' with more developments around the station. The contract for the design and construction of Kandang Kerbau station was awarded to a joint venture between Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Zublin AG for S$311.56 million (US$ million) in April 1997. The contract also includes the construction of the adjacent Farrer Park station.

In October 1998, construction workers at the site unearthed human skeletons, some of which were adorned with gold jewellery. A few speculated the skeletons to be massacred victims during the Japanese occupation, a mortuary of the Kandang Kerbau hospital, or part of a nearby cemetery at Kampung Java. Nevertheless, the exact origins of the skeletons remained unknown.

It was initially planned to close Buffalo Lane to facilitate construction works. However, as it was an important road for shoppers leaving Tekka Centre to Bukit Timah Road by car, the Moulmein Tekka Residents' Committee raised concerns of road congestion around the station site. Hence, a metal decking was constructed to keep the road open while works continued underneath. The deck had to be moved five times during construction works which impacted the construction schedule, costing the Land Transport Authority (LTA) about $1 million (US$ million).

To construct the 53 m underpass underneath the Bukit Timah Canal, the LTA dismissed the conventional cut-and-cover method as it would have disrupted vehicular traffic on Bukit Timah Road and risked flooding the road and the station due to obstructed water flow of the canal. The frontal segmental jacking method was briefly adopted until the discovery of boulders underground. Hence, the open-face tunnelling method was adopted, with metal decking built over the site that avoided traffic disruption of the Bukit Timah Road.

When tunneling between the Little India and Farrer Park stations, the heritage buildings along Race Course Road required protection against settlement. As these buildings were built on 'strip footings' and shallow timber piles, they were supported by the installation of steel supports and were being closely monitored for any movement. An old church near the tunnel excavation works, Foochow Methodist Church, was built on a combination of timber and H-piles, which caused uneven settlement and cracks to appear on the church walls. As a safety precaution, the church congregation temporarily relocated to the nearby Rex cinema while the LTA and church engineers strengthened the church foundation with steel supports and micropiles.

Hoping to take advantage of crowds that would come from the station, Malaysia property developer DRB-Hicom went ahead to construct the Tekka Mall in 2001, which was completed in May 2003. The station commenced operations on 20 June 2003 as Little India station. The station's name change was criticised by the Singapore Heritage Society, which claimed that the new name was "misleading" to suggest that the area was the 'main abode of Indians'. They had advocated keeping the original name as it better reflects the area's heritage.

Downtown line
Little India was first announced to be an interchange station with the Downtown Line (DTL) in March 2007, and the LTA announced on 15 July 2008 that it would be part of DTL Stage 2 (DTL2). The contract for the design and construction of Little India station and tunnels was awarded to SsangYong Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd for in June 2009. The contract also included the construction of the adjacent Rochor station. Construction of the station was scheduled to commence in the third quarter of 2009 with a targeted completion date of 2015.

A 58 m section of the DTL tunnel below the NEL tunnels had to be manually mined due to the hard ground and the large boulders underground. At the DTL station site, a boulder about the size of a double decker bus was also broken into smaller pieces using specialised hydraulic machinery. On the night of 26 March 2014, a fire broke out at the construction site but was put out in 30 minutes. The DTL station opened on 27 December 2015.

Details
Little India station is an interchange station on the NEL and the DTL. On the NEL, the station is between the Dhoby Ghaut and Farrer Park stations, while on the DTL, the station is between the Newton and Rochor stations. The station code is NE7/DT12. Located along Bukit Timah Road at the junction of Race Course Road, the station serves the eponymous Little India. Surrounding landmarks include Albert Court, the KK Women's & Children's Hospital, Tekka Market, Shree Lakshminarayan Temple and the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. The station is also close to the LTA Hampshire office and Tanglin Police HQ.

Designed to reflect Indian traditions, the metal grills of the NEL station walls have leaf-shaped patterns similar to the door patterns of Hindu prayer rooms. The NEL station is designated as a Civil Defence (CD) shelter: it is designed to accommodate at least 7,500 people and withstand airstrikes and chemical attacks. Equipment essential for the operations in the CD shelter is mounted on shock absorbers to prevent damage during a bombing. When the electrical supply to the shelter is disrupted, there are backup generators to keep operations going. The shelter has dedicated built-in decontamination chambers and dry toilets with collection bins that will send human waste out of the shelter.

The DTL station was designed by Architects61, which adopted a flowing fabric theme inspired by the Indian sari to reflect the vicinity's heritage. The NEL and DTL platforms are wheelchair-accessible. A tactile system, consisting of tiles with rounded or elongated raised studs, guides visually impaired commuters through the station, with dedicated routes that connect the station entrances to the platforms or between the lines. Wider fare gates allow easier access for wheelchair users into the station.

Public artwork
The station displays two artworks as part of the MRT network's Art-in-Transit programme – a showcase of public artworks on the MRT network.

Memoirs of the Past
S. Chandrasekaran's artwork in the NEL station, Memoirs of the Past, is a series of sepia-toned pieces celebrating traditional Indian folk art. The work includes elaborate bronze and granite floor designs and stylized animal paintings on the walls, referencing the area's historical buffalo stables. Inspired by Hindu icons, Chandra's art explores themes such as the human body, birth, sexuality, self-knowledge, and the cosmos. The bronze kolam patterns represent Lord Shiva's third eye, symbolizing wisdom and insight. This third eye is also a motif throughout Chandra's work at Little India station, and he hoped to simplify Indian icons (or "archetypes" – his preferred term) for the modern era.

Chandra recalls the daily ritual of making kolams by his mother in his childhood home in Chinatown, though this tradition is fading due to busy modern lifestyles. The kolam reminds him of the cycle of life and death, and symbolises the start of a new day, celebrating life, and giving thanks to God. Drawing inspiration from Rajasthani folk art, which he studied during his postgraduate program in India, Chandra's paintings at Little India feature raw, simple lines and distorted proportions, blending child-like charm with stylized abstraction. The sepia tones in these works align with the monochromatic earth tones in his other pieces.

Chandra initially proposed a more "abstract and intense" artwork proposal for the station akin to his previous works. However, the religious undertones and sexual connotations were deemed unsuitable for a public space. After consultations with the LTA, he ultimately focused on themes of daily life and local memories, acknowledging that "public art must connect with commuters from all walks of life at a glance". Chandra's shift to creating accessible public art was a new experience, challenging him to balance his artistic voice with contemporary concerns. He eventually embraced the nature of public art, finding enjoyment in working with concepts integral to people's lives and culture.

Woven Field
Grace Tan's Woven Field is a geometric tessellation of metal plates "woven" into the station's aluminium baffle wall above the DTL platforms. Using black perforated aluminium trays to hold 1,000 triangular units in three metallic shades, the work of "undulating patterns" spans 15.93 m with a height of 2.82 m. These triangular motifs evolves into more complex imagery, including diamonds, butterflies, fish, and eight-petalled lotus, while blending with the station design "to form a single entity". Reflecting the Rochor Canal and movements of commuters, the work took inspiration from Indian sari patterns.

The flowing white baffle strips of the station design reminded Tan of vertically-arranged yarns on weavers' looms. This gave her the idea of 'weaving' the artwork into the architecture to reinforce the design theme of its locality and place. Additionally, she was intrigued by the patterns found in saris – such as the fish, herringbone and lotus – that represent the diverse beliefs of Indian culture, and hence rendered these symbols to be expressed in geometric patterns.