Construction report for major projects in Batam as of August 2022. The island of Batam is part of the Riau Islands in Indonesia, on the other side of the Singapore Strait. Batam was listed as the fastest growing city in the world in 2015, with its proximity to Singapore being a major advantage. Despite this mind-blowing […]
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Future Batam
Batam is an island of Riau Islands province, in the region of Sumatra, Indonesia. Batam is about 20km to the south of Singapore, and its proximity to Singapore has made it an industrial and transport hub. Batam and the neighbouring Bintan and Karimun islands were designated as a free trade zone in 2009 (the BBK […]
Johor Bahru construction update – 2022 edition
Johor Bahru is making the most of its proximity to Singapore, with affordable apartments (compared to Singapore) near the future transit link. Here is an overview of some of the major projects under construction in Johor Bahru Johor Bahru Map This map list projects mentioned in this article. A full list can be found at […]
Andaman Eastern & Oriental – A new urban island in Penang
Andaman is a new urban development built on an artificial island off the Northeast coast of Penang. The island is being developed by E&O (Eastern & Oriental) and it forms part of the Gurney Wharf development. There are two islands as part of the project, and there will be two bridges connecting them to the […]
Improving the interchanges and connections of the KL metro transit system
Kuala Lumpur has slowly and steadily been building out an urban rail transit system that it hopes will reduce the city’s car addiction. Mistakes were made early on with integrating the lines, but there have been some great improvements in recent years. In fact, KL has examples of the best and worst ways to make […]
Penang construction update – 2022 edition
Penang is a state in Malaysia that is split between the island of Penang and the opposing land on the mainland. There is a new island being reclaimed off the north coast of Penang, and there are contentious plans for three more islands to the south. This article is an overview of what is planned […]
Kuala Lumpur construction update – 2022 edition
Kuala Lumpur has some big-ticket projects under construction, including the first megatall skyscraper in Southeast Asia. Like the rest of Southeast Asia, Malaysia had an international lockout when Covid broke out in 2020, and it didn’t fully reopen until 2022. This affected projects that rely on migrant labour, but the projects that were already funded […]
Ho Chi Minh City Metro 2022 construction update
Ho Chi Minh City is in the midst of building its first metro line, and planning for at least another 10 lines. Every year I do a “State of the Metro” report to follow the construction progress and other lines under consideration (here are the 2020 and 2021 reports). Another year has gone by and […]
Hanoi Metro 2022 construction update
This is the second Hanoi Metro Report at Future Southeast Asia (the first one being in 2020). These construction updates are an annual snapshot of construction progress and notable news over the last year. I missed the 2021 update due to the pandemic, so I was happy to be able to return to Hanoi and […]
Hanoi Line 2A review: riding the first metro railway in Vietnam
Line 2A of the Hanoi Metro opened on November 6th 2021, making it the first urban rail transit line in Vietnam. I have been watching this line slowly (very slowly) get built while I have been based in Vietnam. I visited Hanoi in 2020 thinking that my metro report would include a review of the […]
