Singapore will build its first- ever public compressed natural gas (CNG) station, which will start running by January next year, local media reported on Thursday.

The station will be built and operated by Smart Automobile, which also runs Singapore's first and largest fleet of CNG taxis, Channel NewsAsia reported.

The company has obtained a 30-year lease to build the station, which will serve all CNG-fueled vehicles here. And it hopes to have four more stations by 2011.

It will charge about 75 cents (about 0.5 U.S. dollar) per liter for CNG, much cheaper than petrol, which costs from 1.6 Singapore dollars (about 1 U.S. dollar) per liter.

Channel NewsAsia quoted Johnny Harjantho, managing director of Smart Automobile as saying, "We project that by the time the five CNG stations are up, there will be about 3,000 to 4,000 CNG taxis of our own, and from the public side - commercial and private cars -we estimate that there are going to be about 10,000 cars available on the road."

Other countries with CNG stations include Australia, China and South Korea, according to the report.