In an exchange exploring the development of SMU in 1999, then SMU executive committee chairman Mr Ho Kwon Ping revealed that according to the master blueprint of the SMU campus drawn up by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), the original National Library Building at Stamford Road would be demolished to make way for the construction of a tunnel at the same road. Then Minister of National Development Mr Mah Bow Tan had said that URA’s proposal could increase human traffic at Stamford Road and, with the development of the SMU campus, restore vibrancy in the area.