Located in the northeastern part of Singapore, Seletar includes the areas south of Yishun, west of Sungei Punggol, the Lower Seletar Reservoir and parts of Upper Thomson. The Seletar Planning Area includes the area between Lower Seletar Reservoir and Sungei Punggol, the northern part of TPE, and the reclaimed islands of Pulau Punggol Barat and Pulau Punggol Timor. Map bearings aside, Seletar is/was/will be home to several landmarks of Singapore : British naval and air bases, Upper Seletar Reservoir, and Seletar Aerospace Park (2018).
Seletar refers to native coastal dwellers (called orang laut or orang seletar) who resided at the edge of the Johor Straits and at the mouth of the Seletar River. Thus the river is named as such. Later, these people migrated from Seletar to Sungai Pulai in southwest Johor. In Chinese, Seletar is koon kung (“naval base”).