Chingay festival 2017 at Singapore. This National Event is also the largest street performance and float parade in Asia from Shutterstock.com
Singapore Police Force (SPF) has announced the traffic arrangements for Chingay Parade Singapore 2018 which will be held on 23 February 2018 (Parade 1) and 24 February 2018 (Parade 2).
To facilitate the event, the police stated that the following roads will be closed to vehicular traffic during the stipulated periods.
During the closure, access will only be granted to police and emergency vehicles. Auxiliary Police Officers will be deployed along the affected roads to assist and direct motorists.
"Parking restrictions along the peripheral roads will be strictly enforced. Vehicles found parking and causing obstruction will be towed," the police added.
Members of the public may contact the organiser, The People’s Association, at hotline: 6340 5012 for further enquiries.
The Chingay Parade is an annual street parade that is mainly organised by the People's Association and supported by various organisations and companies in Singapore.
On 4 February 1973, the first Singapore Chingay parade was held partly as a result of the ban on firecrackers a year earlier in 1972 as a result of fire hazards. This ban was viewed unfavourably despite the safety issues involved. Some people felt that the ban would result in a much dampened festival mood for the Chinese New Year period.
To address this issue, the People's Association and the Singapore National Pugilistic Association jointly organised a street parade from Jalan Besar to Outram Park featuring the signature floats, acrobatic acts, lion and dragon dances, stilt walkers, and the like, to bring back some cheer to the general public.
The largely Chinese parade became a multi-cultural one from 1977 when Malay and Indian groups started joining in the performances, which was to mark a major precedent in the overall flavour of the parade. The parade has gradually evolved to one which has become largely multi-cultural in character and multi-national in participation.
SINGAPORE - Spectators at this year's Chingay parade might see a blue, white and red robot roving the grounds.
In its debut public showcase on Friday (Feb 23), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) patrol robot will help the police step up security efforts at Chingay 2018, which expects a 100,000-strong crowd on its first day.
This year's Chingay parade will be held on Friday and Saturday from 8pm to 9.30pm at the F1 Pit Building.
It will be deployed after 8pm to patrol a 400m stretch at the end point of the parade.
The robot, which feeds 360-degree live video back to the command post with its six surround cameras, can be used to detect threats and suspicious characters.
Only one operator is needed to monitor its video feed on a tablet device.
Officers can then make sense of those images and deploy forces accordingly, said assistant director of SPF's strategic planning division M. Malathi.
The robot can also be used for crowd dispersal with its in-built speakers, which can broadcast audio messages to the public.
It follows a pre-mapped route and is able to avoid obstacles in its way.
This is the patrol robot's first trial by the SPF.
If successful, it will be deployed in longer operations, such as during the Singapore Formula 1 event.
Offenders who damage it will be "dealt with under the law" as it is government property, said Ms Malathi.
She declined to comment on the cost involved to develop the robot, a process which took three months.
The SPF has at least two other robot prototypes in the works. More information on this will follow in its annual Workplan Seminar.
