A DIVERSION canal which overflowed last Thursday and flooded parts of Bukit Timah Road will be expanded over two phases in the next three years, said the national water agency yesterday.

The tender has closed for the first phase, which will be a $20 million facelift to double the capacity of the main Bukit Timah Canal at its juncture with the diversion canal. This is the portion stretching from Wilby Road to Sixth Avenue.

A floodgate located at the Sixth Avenue junction to divert water from the main canal into the three-decade-old diversion was unable to contain rising water levels from 92mm of rain being dumped over half an hour. The rainfall is the second-biggest in the last two decades over the same period, following the 96mm in November 1995.

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