New Mandai North Crematorium

The long awaited new crematorium - Mandai North Crematorium is finally opening its doors on the middle of August 2025, on the 15th. This date is a lot earlier compared to when we thought the grand opening would be - quarter four of 2025.

I say it is long awaited because the only operating crematorium for all religions except Muslim in Singapore is Mandai Crematorium at 300 Mandai Road. About eight years ago, Mandai Crematorium typically closes at 5.30-6.00PM but this is hardly the case now. With only 4 halls, and 3 furnaces in each hall, Mandai Crematorium starts its first cremation at 8.45AM and the final cremation can be as late as 11.00PM. This is because the death rates has increased and with a fixed capacity at the crematorium, hours have to be stretched to accommodate to the increased number of cremations. In the past, the superstitious and traditional would request for the cremation timings to be before sunset but people can hardly choose a preferred cremation time now due to the lack of timings for cremation. In some cases, families have to extend the funeral wake days just to get a cremation time slot as booking the slot three days in advance might not get you any during peak period.

With the new Mandai North Crematorium boasting 2.4ha in size and a garden for ash scattering (Garden of Serenity), the aforementioned issues could potentially be solved and the work at the old crematorium would definitely be more balanced. That is, if the old crematorium still remains in operation. At this point in time, we are not sure if the old crematorium will be undergoing some form of renovation or maintenance once the new Mandai North Crematorium operates at full capacity. According to the news, it will start with only 4 cremations per day before ramping up on the number of cremations. Starting on a small scale is probably a good idea to test out the system so that issues can be rectified before expanding on the operations.

The new crematorium will have 6 service halls with viewing halls with walking distance ( you do not have to walk to another hall now!). Each hall, like the old crematorium, will have 3 furnaces. In a bid towards a more digitalised world and to I guess reduce human errors and rely less on labourers, the design of this new crematorium leverages on technology quite a fair bit. The coffins are supposed to move automatically once unloaded from the funeral hearse to the central podium at the service hall for the cremation service. The ash collection centre is supposedly also self-serviced, with being able to retrieve the ashes of their loved ones upon scanning a qr code sent to them via email at the centre.

Personally, I am excited to see these changes being rolled out and to see how Singaporeans benefit as a whole from this slate of changes. Let’s wait to see how Singapore’s death scene will change with time.