1 $37b Sha Tin rail link gets go-ahead
Nishika Patel and Victor Cheung, The Standard 12 March 2008
The government will fund the HK$37.4 billion construction of a new rail link between Sha Tin and Central that will carry one million passengers per day, it was announced yesterday.
The 17-kilometer link will be leased to the MTRC for HK$91.8 billion over a period of 50 years and will reap an additional annual economic benefit of HK$4 billion in savings on travel times, the government said.
Nine stations will be built under the two-phase scheme, six of which will be interchange stations creating two east- west and north-south railway corridors.
Work on the first stage from Tai Wai to Hung Hom, which was endorsed by the Executive Council yesterday, will start in 2010 and be completed in 2015.
The second cross-harbor phase, linking Hung Hom with Admiralty, will be finished by 2019.
Explaining the government's decision to pay for the scheme, Transport and Housing secretary Eva Cheng Yu- wah said overall ownership will allow the government to maintain a beneficial financial position.
She added ownership would also place the government in a better position to negotiate with the MTRC, when its lease expires, on parts which used to be part of the former KCRC network before the rail merger.
The new line, which will slash travel time from 29 to 17 minutes, will not extend to the Central station due to the lack of a suitable site.
Cheng said previous sites mooted for a Central station were not appropriate since the Botanical Gardens was too far while the area to the west of Wyndham Street had problems with soil quality.
She said a review of land use in Central would be carried out once the government moved to the Tamar site.
About 11,000 jobs will be created during the construction of the project while a further 9,600 workers will be needed to operate the link.
Transport and housing deputy secretary Philip Yung Wai-hung said the project was divided into two phases to avoid impacting on the Central-Wan Chai bypass reclamation work.
The MTRC yesterday also unveiled plans to extend the Kwun Tong Line to serve the Whampoa and Hung Hom areas, costing the MTRC HK$4.2 billion.
In return the MTRC will benefit from property development rights along the line.
2 Residents, shopkeepers want Kwun Tong renewal
The Standard , 12 March 2008
Eighty-six percent out of 442 submissions support the Urban Renewal Authority's plan to redevelop a five-hectare site at Kwun Tong town center and Yuet Wah Street into residential and commercial complexes.
The Town Planning Board will consider the submissions on the Kwun Tong City Centre redevelopment on Friday.
The submissions were mainly from residents and shop owners.
Legislator Alan Leong Ka-kit said in his submission that the proposed 280-meter landmark building at the site is about 40 percent higher than the existing 200-meter APM shopping mall.
The high plot ratio of the 180-meter residential towers and the landmark building, ranging from 7.5 to 12, will not only block air circulation but also increase population and traffic pressure in the already dense district, he said. Some patrticipants suggested phasing the redevelopment to ease the impact on residents and shops, which will allow streetscapes to continue to feature.
In reply, the authority said the "cascading building form" with its split podium will provide an adequate breezeway for ventilation.
The Town Planning Board is expected to approve the plan on Friday. UNA SO
3 URA sets target for HK$30b Kwun Tong project
Olga Wong and Helen Wu, SCMP 12 March 2008
The Urban Renewal Authority is to acquire properties that fall within the redevelopment boundaries of Kwun Tong town centre by the end of this year.
The internal rate of return for the project would fall below the expected 5 per cent because of the booming property market and concerns brought by a second mortgage crisis, said Quinn Law Yee-kwan, the authority's new managing director.
The HK$30 billion redevelopment plan, at 5.35 hectares, is the biggest and most complicated project undertaken by the authority. It would accommodate 600,000 people.
Officials had received 442 comments on the plan, of which 380 submitted by residents, shop owners and local organisations supported it.
Legislator Alan Leong Kah-kit was one of more than 50 who opposed the project. He said a planned iconic 90-storey tower was much taller than the shopping mall in the district, the APM, and would disrupt the ridge line. The commercial tower is one of 122 features of the draft plans that are said to reflect the aspirations of the community.
The H15 Concern Group, which consisted of former shop operators and residents affected by the Lee Tung Street redevelopment scheme in Wan Chai, said Kwun Tong should be redeveloped in phases and the plan should address clearly how the social network could be preserved.
But the Planning Department said yesterday that the plan prepared by the URA should not be amended, arguing that concerns on height limit and the provision of a hawker bazaar and street shops to preserve local characteristics could be addressed when the master layout plan was submitted.
It also said the URA would have to submit a visual-impact assessment to justify the proposed height of the iconic tower.
The Town Planning Board will discuss the scheme on Friday.
4 Stalled rail link given the green light
Government to shoulder HK$37b Sha Tin-Central Link costs
Anita Lam, SCMP 12 March 2008
The final piece of a puzzle that will complete two mega-railway corridors finally fell into place when the Executive Council gave the green light for the long-stalled Sha Tin to Central rail line yesterday.
Delayed by the merger talks between the MTR Corp and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, the line - originally scheduled to start operating this year - will now be completed in 2019.
The government said yesterday it would adopt a "service concession approach" for the project. This meant it retained ownership of the line by shouldering the entire HK$37.4 billion construction cost. It would lease the line to the MTR Corp for 50 years, for an estimated return of HK$91.8 billion.
Secretary for Transport and Housing Eva Cheng said such an approach would put the government in a better position when renegotiating with the MTR Corp on the renewal of the lease for the operating rights for the former KCRC network, including East Rail and West Rail, which also expires in 50 years.
Lawmakers and analysts welcomed the decision, saying the government would enjoy greater freedom over the line's financing and get to keep valuable land at Diamond Hill that was originally tipped to be granted to the MTR Corp to subsidise the rail operator for building the line.
The MTR Corp has requested another site in Ho Man Tin - estimated to be worth more than HK$7.8 billion - to subsidise the Kwun Tong extension, a key east-west connection that is not included in the Sha Tin to Central Link's funding arrangement.
The 3km extension - from the existing Yau Ma Tei station to Whampoa via the Sha Tin link's new Ho Man Tin station - is estimated to cost HK$4.2 billion, but the funding gap between its construction cost and revenue would be HK$2.2 billion.
Ms Cheng said the government would study the proposal to make sure the subsidy did not exceed the funding needed for the extension.
The 17km rail link will be completed in two sections. The first part, comprising seven stations - Tai Wai, Diamond Hill, Kai Tak, To Kwa Wan, Ma Tau Wai, Ho Man Tin and Hung Hom - is expected to be completed in 2015. The Kwun Tong extension will be built at the same time.
Ms Cheng said completion of these two lines would open up rail traffic between the east and west. Together, the lines will connect the Ma On Shan Line and West Rail to form a mega east-west corridor.
"It is like activating a blood vessel that used to be blocked."
Commuters will save 14 minutes on a trip between Wu Kai Sha and Tuen Mun, while travelling time between Whampoa and Mong Kok will be cut from 25 to five minutes.
However, two of the stations originally proposed in the project - Tze Wan Shan and Central South, were removed from the plan due to geographical difficulties.
Ms Cheng said the government would reconsider another possible location for the Central South station after the Central Government Offices moved to Tamar in 2012.
The second section of the link - from Hung Hom to Admiralty - will be completed four years after the first section. The delay is due to reclamation concerns and the second-phase of the Wan Chai promenade redevelopment, which is still being planned.
When the link is completed, it will create a north-south corridor that will allow passengers to reach Hong Kong Island directly from Lo Wu without having to switch trains.
