OVERCOMING LOGISTIC CHALLENGES FOR NDP 2007

A hungry man is an angry man.

So providing meals for the 4,200 participants and members of the working parties at National Day Parade (NDP) 2007 is a top priority - and main challenge - for the Logistics & Finance Committee.

The committee makes sure that participants can always look forward to a good meal as they go through the numerous practices to gear up for 9 Aug.

With approximately 18,000 meals consumed at each rehearsal, Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Alvin Koh, Chairman of Logistics & Finance Committee, and his team have to plan carefully how to deliver the meals to the participants.

"First, we make sure we don't confine ourselves to only one supplier," said LTC Koh. "Then we time our delivery so that the participants can get warm meals."

The meals are delivered in 15-minute intervals and distributed to four different locations. There are 21 menus that NDP participants get to savour.

Apart from food, another challenge is "insufficient permanent infrastructure" to house all the participants, with this year's NDP being held at the Marina Bay seating gallery.

LTC Koh explained that previously, when NDP was held at the National Stadium, they had the Indoor Stadium to house the participants. Hence in November last year, after months of research, the concept of a "Show Village" was born.

A site of 10,000 square metres (equivalent to two football fields) under the Benjamin Sheares Bridge was chosen and the Village was built from scratch, complete with tentages, flooring, containers and amenities.

LTC Koh said: "Clearly we lack the proper infrastructure here, so the site had to be chosen. It is flat enough and also close enough to the Floating Platform."

With NDP 2007 being held at the platform which has a much smaller seating capacity than the National Stadium, there are many Singaporeans who have missed out on getting tickets.

But the NDP organising committee wants all Singaporeans to come join in the fun at the Marina Bay area.

Colonel (COL) Ho Kong Wai, Chairman of the Security & Contingency committee, said: "We want to invite all Singaporeans even though you might not have tickets to the seating gallery.

But with the new venue, there will also be safety and security concerns.

"My committee is working very closely with various agencies to give Singaporeans a safe and secure environment to celebrate NDP," assured COL Ho.

"We have to look into crowd management and since we're at the Marina Bay area, water safety is also one of our primary concerns."

There will be uniformed personnel on duty, revealed COL Ho.

"We want Singapore to feel safe and secure, but not be overwhelmed by uniformed presence."

Interesting facts and figures of NDP 2007

Number of people involved in logistics: 607
Total number of containers deployed: 100
Amount of water consumed: 800,000 bottles of Newater and 142,990 litres of Polar Water
Number of meals consumed: 260,000
Amount of ice used: 42,000 tonnes

Places to watch NDP 07 highlights:

• Merlion Park
  
• Fullerton Hotel
  
• Esplanade Bridge
  
• Esplanade