What To Know About Novena MRT Station

Novena MRT Station (NS20) is an underground station on the North-South Line (NSL) that is located within the Moulmein planning subzone (near the Balestier subzone’s boundary) and near the intersection of Newton Road, Thomson Road, and Moulmein Road.

The station took its name from the adjacent Catholic Church of Saint Alphonsus’ Novena prayer sessions (better known as Novena Church). It serves the Novena neighborhood in Central Singapore, including the Health City Novena medical complex, shopping malls, office buildings, schools, places of worship, condominiums, and private housing estates. The public underpass between Novena MRT (Exit B) and Goldhill Centre was removed in 2017 to make room for North-South Corridor construction work beneath Thomson Road.

Meta Description

Novena MRT Station (NS20) is an underground station on the North-South Line of the Mass Rapid Transit system, which opened on December 12, 1987.

History

The Novena MRT station was known as Thomson and was part of the MRT system’s Phase One construction. According to the Provisional MRT Authority, the station’s name was changed to Novena in November 1982 because it better matched the station’s location.

Tobishima and Takenaka, two Japanese contractors, were awarded Contract 104 in October 1983 for the Novena and Toa Payoh stations and the tunnels between Toa Payoh and Newton stations. The station was built entirely from the ground up, beginning in January 1984. A Jewish cemetery along Thomson Road was demolished in 1984 to make way for the station, and the graves get reinterred at Choa Chu Kang. The tunnels connecting Novena and Newton get built using compressed air to prevent soil subsidence.

A worker gets died at the station site in June 1985 after being struck by moving components of a tunnel boring machine, which resulted in brain injuries. The MRT extension to Outram Park included Novena station, which opened on December 12, 1987.

Bright green wall tiles used to be one of the station’s distinguishing features, but they were all coming apart in 2005. In May 2007, at the same time as Square 2, the station was extensively renovated. From September 2006 to May 2007, the elevators at Novena MRT station get upgraded.

Design

The architecture of Novena station is identical to that of Toa Payoh station, with a gross size of 8,000 square meters (86,000 square feet) and two stories that reach a depth of 15 meters (49 ft). The station’s concourse and ticketing control are located on the upper level, while the station’s platforms are on the lower level. White-tiled walls and emerald green pillars may also get found at the station.

The station formerly had a subterranean plaza and a manicured pedestrian walkway. A steel honeycomb-like framework gets installed in the station’s entrances.

Exits

Novena MRT station has two underground entrances (A and B) at the north and south ends of the ticket concourse, respectively, unique in station exit naming nomenclature. These exits are then connected to neighboring complexes by public underpasses. Exits A and B provide barrier-free access to the disabled through a lift to the Square 2 shopping center on the ground floor, with an extra station lift to Tan Tock Seng Hospital at Exit A.