After his O-levels in late 2013, civil engineering enthusiast Nethaniel Foo decided to start a blog on the construction of the Thomson MRT line. He even bought a drone to take aerial shots of the worksites along the MRT line, covering 25 to 30 sites every quarter, to produce content for the page.
After encoutering numerous difficulties in providing updates on the line, Nethaniel decided to shut the blog.
He wrote, “Over the last quarter, the agency (began) aggressively issuing legal threats against the sub-contractors and workers (who) have supported the blog with their kind contribution of pictures — all with the good intent of sharing greater details on the construction progress.”
The final-year civil engineering student at Singapore Polytechnic said that he had been threatened by staff at worksites with accusations of trespass for flying his drone. Twice, he had photos of him and his identity card taken before he was allowed to leave.
His requests to collaborate with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to provide updates for the public went unanswered.
However, after an informal meeting with the LTA and encouragement from friends and the public, Nethaniel has since decided to carry on with is blog.
A spokesperson had added: “LTA is happy to work with the community on creating awareness for our projects.”
The LTA had also rejected allegations on Nethaniel’s blog that it had issued “legal threats” to its contractors and sub-contractors for contributing pictures to him, calling them “false allegations”.
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