High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Paya Lebar is an area in the central-eastern part of Singapore. It is served by Paya Lebar Station, on the East West Line of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit system. It is also an urban planning area.Paya Lebar was a large, swampy area close to the Kallang River, hence its name. Paya means "swamp" and lebar means "wide" in Malay. This was an extensive and notorious squatter district, whose inhabitants engage in cultivating market produce, including pig and poultry rearing.One of the first persons to colonise this area was Richard Owen Norris (died 1905), who bought part of the area in 1865 and lived here with his family.