Singapore Opens Eight Pickleball Courts Inside Converted Bus Terminal

Eight sheltered pickleball courts carved out of the Little India Bus Terminal opened on Saturday, giving Singapore's fastest-growing racket sport a home in one of the city-state's most storied sporting precincts.

The facility, named ActiveSG Courts @ Farrer Park, was inaugurated by Minister of State for National Development and Trade and Industry Alvin Tan and represents a collaboration between Sport Singapore and the Land Transport Authority. Public bookings opened on the MyActiveSG+ platform from Monday, March 16.

The conversion works around the terminal's existing function rather than replacing it. The space sits idle from Monday through Saturday, while on Sundays it continues to serve migrant workers as a bus terminal. Yeo Teck Guan, LTA's Senior Group Director for Public Transport, framed the logic plainly: "By retrofitting sections of Little India Bus Terminal into pickleball courts, we are optimising the use of available space while minimising impact on current Sunday bus operations serving migrant workers." Courts operate from 9am to 9pm on the six days they are available. Peak-hour slots are allocated through a balloting system that opens 14 days in advance, while non-peak and unassigned peak slots are released on a first-come, first-served basis from 12 days prior.

The demand driving the project is substantial. ActiveSG bookings for pickleball increased tenfold between 2023 and 2025, and with this opening the ActiveSG network now counts more than 80 pickleball courts across sport centres and dual-use sites islandwide. The government announced during the 2026 Committee of Supply debate that 50 additional multipurpose courts for badminton and pickleball will be built over the next five years, part of Sport Singapore's Sports Facilities Master Plan targeting accessible facilities within a 10-minute walk of most homes by 2030.

Alvin Tan positioned the launch as something larger than a capacity fix. Dubbing Farrer Park the "spiritual home of sport in Singapore," he said: "A key part of this is a broader vision for us to bring back sports to Farrer Park." The area was Singapore's sporting heartland from the 1940s through the 1980s, home to an athletics centre, boxing gym, swimming complex, football pitches, and tennis and squash courts. It produced footballer Quah Kim Song, swimmer Ang Peng Siong, and boxer Syed Abdul Kadir before those facilities were gradually wound down.

The pickleball courts are the first piece of a larger redevelopment. Alvin Tan said work is about to begin on a neighbouring multi-purpose sports complex in the Moulmein-Cairnhill division comprising two swimming pools, an additional children's pool, an ActiveSG gym, and sports fields. A broader ActiveSG Sport Park @ Farrer Park is also planned, with a sheltered swimming complex, inclusive gyms, and a multi-purpose play area among its features.

Eighteen-year-old resident Augustus Surya Jayarajan, who lives near the terminal, said he was eager to try the new courts. "I enjoy playing a lot of sports like football and tennis, so hopefully pickleball won't be hard to pick up," he said. "I think this new facility is a good social space to meet new people and continue healthy living through sport."

With bookings live and courts already in use, the conversion of an underused Sunday bus shelter into a weekday pickleball venue offers a template Singapore may replicate as it races toward its 2030 accessibility target.