We are CRANE country

I remember driving past the Marina Bay Sands resort hotel while it was still under construction and the amount of mechanical cranes I saw there was a lot.

Seriously, a lot of cranes. Within an area of 100 square meters, I could estimate that there'd be around 10 cranes within the area. I believe there should be about 100 cranes I saw parked within the vicinity of the construction area then..

 Picture from Singapore Rocks blog

Now that the resort has been completed, the silhouette of the cranes in that area has been replaced by a magnificent hotel resort.

Marina Bay Sands Resort

However, I believe all around Singapore, the number of cranes has not reduced in total.

The Singapore cityscape skyline is defined by its constant construction and inevitably the silhouette of cranes. 

Cranes in the cityscape

This got me started thinking..

Is there a limit to how many cranes that can be imported in Singapore? 

Is there a COE scheme for importing and owning cranes? 

Could there be a better way to limit the number of cranes in Singapore? 

Are there more parked and unused cranes compared to the ones in use? 
Are these cranes environmentally friendly on their exhaust emissions?

Can't the construction companies rent and loan them from a central crane rental facilities whereby the number of cranes can be controlled within this country?

Let's play "Spot the Cranes" game
Click to enlarge picture

Like it or not, we are CRANE country. 

Welcome to Singapore...
A country that is uplifting 
and 
We will get you hooked.

FarBird's take on spike of Singapore's COE prices in April 2010

For those whom don't yet already know of Singapore's method of issuing new car registrations, please have a read at Wikipedia's entry on COE.


Ok, now listen to my take on why the COE went up so sharply in early April 2010.

The COE price of the different classes of vehicles are determined by a quota bidding system.

This means that if there are 100 vehicles that got de-registered last month, there will be 100 new COEs up for grabs in the upcoming bid. If 200 potential car owners cast their bid for the COE, the price of the COE will be determined by the 100th decremental bid price casted.

Outrageous Parking Charges in Singapore

In the name of rising COE, which rose to S$34,001 just 3 weeks ago, for the purchase of a car of capacity 1600cc and below, this implied of the situation that was to follow..


Rising petrol, rising parking charges, etc etc... ahhhhh....

And....

This was shown to me today.

A friend incurred this amount of parking at a carpark at Alexandra Road area.

In the first place, can the ERP cashcard take up to $750 top-up?