Described as Asia’s most famous shopping street, Orchard Road appears to have lost its glitz – to the point of being described by locals as “dull” and “boring”.

There have been years of efforts to spruce up Singapore’s premier shopping belt, including car-free weekends and cash grants for malls to build underground linkways, but the consensus seems to be that this has not worked well enough, according to The Straits Times.

Now the Minister for Trade and Industry S. Iswaran says the long-term answer could be to remove vehicular traffic and make it a pedestrian-only zone.

He told a tourism industry conference last week that reclaiming the road would create “a multi-purpose space where diverse and larger-scale experiential concepts can be introduced”.

As a start, another lane could be shut to traffic to make room for more street-level activities, says Singapore Tourism Board (STB) chief executive Lionel Yeo. About a decade ago, one lane of Orchard Road was closed to widen a short stretch outside Ion Orchard and Wisma Atria, as part of a S$40-million (US$28.6 million) facelift.