Plans to build a railway line through Singapore, primarily to service the New Harbour had been mooted as early as 1869 by Engineer W. J. du Port of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company but the project to build a railway line was only approved by Governor Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell only in 1899 after then Governor Cecil Clementi Smith raised the need for it in an 1889 Legislative Council meeting. Construction works were then initiated, with the groundbreaking ceremony held on 16 April 1900. Chinese labour was employed principally.