Tan Kah Kee MRT Station DT8

Tan Kah Kee MRT Station, Singapore

Zhenkang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tan Kah Kee MRT Station (GPS: 1.3254, 103.80805; DT8) is an underground station of the Singapore MRT in Bukit Timah, Singapore. It is one of several stations along Bukit Timah Road. The station began operations on 27 December, 2015, to served the Stage 2 extension of the Downtown Line between the Sixth Avenue MRT Station and the Botanic Gardens MRT Station.

The Tan Kah Kee MRT Station was named after the founder of the nearby Hwa Chong Institution. During planning and construction, it held the working name of Duchess MRT Station. The name Tan Kah Kee came about after the Land Transport Authority (LTA) rejected the proposal to have the station officially named after Hwa Chong Institution, and provided the options of Duchess MRT Station after nearby Duchess Road), Watten MRT Station after nearby Watten Estate) or Kah Kee MRT Station.

The students and staff of Hwa Chong Institution then set up a Facebook Page to lobby for Kah Kee. Eventually, the LTA announced on 16 June, 2009, that the station would be called the Tan Kah Kee MRT Station, marking the first time that a Singapore MRT station took on a person's full name, and also the first time a station was not named after the immediate locality.