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1. LC: Bill on road excavations introduced

2. Building plans approved in February

1. LC: Bill on road excavations introduced

The Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Bill 2002, which seeks to enable prompt completion of street excavation works, was introduced in the Legislative Council today (April 24). Moving the second reading of the bill, the Secretary for Works, Mr Lee Shing-see, said that the bill also sought to tighten up control on promoters of street excavation and their contractors. To strengthen the deterrent effect, the maximum fine will be raised from $5,000 to $50,000. The bill also seeks to allow the authority to charge economic cost for those street excavations, which are delayed unreasonably, according to the type of streets affected by the excavation. Mr Lee pointed that the Government had also introduced a computerised system for managing road opening applications and their coordination in a more orderly manner, adding that a regular consultation frameworks was set up to communicate with various Government departments and utility undertakings on road opening matters with a view to reducing the number of street excavations. With the implementation of these proposals, he expected that there would be a noticeable reduction in delays in the completion of street excavations works.

[Source: Work Bureau, 24 April 2002]

2. Building plans approved in February

The Buildings Department approved 21 building plans in February -- five on Hong Kong Island, 10 in Kowloon and six in the New Territories. The approved plans covered six for apartment and apartment/commercial developments, one for commercial development, two for factory and industrial developments, and 12 for community services developments. In the same month, consent was given for works to start on 20 building projects, which will provide on completion 48,594 square metres of usable domestic floor area and 32,169 square metres of usable non-domestic floor area. The department also issued 20 occupation permits -- six on Hong Kong Island, nine in Kowloon and five in the New Territories. Of the buildings certified for occupation, the usable floor areas for domestic and non-domestic uses were 24,602 square metres and 38,840 square metres respectively. The declared cost of the new buildings completed in February totalled about $1.538 billion. In addition, five demolition consents involving five building structures were issued. The department received 919 complaints against unauthorised building works in February, and issued 943 removal orders on unauthorised works.

[Source: Hong Kong Government, 25 April 2002]