Bukit Batok Avenue (East/West)/Central/Industrial New Town/Road/Street

There are many different versions of the origins of the Malay place-name Bukit Batok. Bukit means "hill"and there is no quarrel with this but the term batok has several explanations. One version has it that according to the Javanese the village chief in the tiny village of Gassing, coconut trees grew on the hills in the area and hence the term batok, the Javanese term for coconuts. The Chinese interpretation is that the hills were of solid granite and hence called batu, the Malay name for 'stone', which was corrupted to bato and finally batok. Another version construed argues that the hill resembles a skull top and batok could also be construed to mean a "skull top'. Others felt that the cold air in the area, which led to coughs and colds, conferred on the place the name batok, the Malay term for cough. A more ribald explanation has it that the two hills in the area looked like the green buttoks to the British, a word which suffered verbal mutilation among the Chinese to finally emerged as batok. The Bukit Batok link road was completed in 1958.