1 Government to build Kai Tak cruise terminal alone
Sep 30, 2008 , Sing Tao Daily

The government might pass a motion at the Executive Council meeting today to build the Kai Tak cruise terminals without outside assistance after private tenders submitted failed to meet government requirements in July. It is hoped that construction of the project and the completion of it by 2013 would stimulate the economy.

 

2 Government abandons tendering for Kai Tak cruise terminal
Regina Leung 6:00pm, Sep 30, 2008

The government has abandoned the tendering process for the Kai Tak cruise terminal and decided to allocate approximately HK$7 billion to build it, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan said on Tuesday.

Ms Lau said the tendering process had failed to find acceptable bids. Rising constructions costs and the recent international financial crisis had also increased the risks for companies who might have been interested in the project.

“So we have decided to build the terminal by ourselves. We want to complete the construction as soon as possible as any further delays in construction would only increase costs,” she said.

Ms Lau said after the terminal was completed, the government would lease it to a private operator for seven to 10 years.

“The first berth is expected to be in service by 2013. It is expected the new project would create 8,000 to 9,000 new jobs and bring an economic benefits of HK$2.5 billion to Hong Kong by 2023,” she added. In July, the government said the two bids it hgad received were rejected for going outside the tendering requirements.

Under the original proposal, the successful tenderer would design, build, operate, manage and maintain the terminal for 50 years, starting with the first berth in 2012.

 

3 Pump out killer pool, grieving parents urge Villagers fear repeat of tragedy that claimed life of 8-year-old boy trying to save his brother
Agnes Lam Sep 30, 2008

Grieving parents whose son drowned in a pool at a Drainage Services Department construction site urged the department yesterday to pump water from the accident scene to prevent another tragedy.

But the department said it was not practicable to pump away the water because it was a natural stream course, adding that there would not have been so much water but for last week's typhoon, which had delayed flood-prevention work.

"Why is there so much water in the construction site?" asked Tang Kwong-ming, whose son, Tang Wing-hei, eight, drowned in the muddy pond at Cheung Po Tsuen in Yuen Long on Sunday while trying to save his older brother.

"When I jumped into the pool to save my young son, the water level was right up to my chest. The bed of the pool is uneven. Water at some parts of the pool is at least 5 to 6 feet [1.5 metres to 1.8 metres] deep," he said.

Wing-hei had leaped into the pool in an effort to rescue his nine-year-old brother, Wing-lok, who had fallen in while playing with other children at about 2.30pm. Wing-lok was pulled out safely but Wing-hei was unconscious when pulled out and died two hours later.

"Wing-hei was lifeless when I lifted him up from the muddy water. His lips were purple. I tried everything I could, but I just couldn't bring him back to life again," Mr Tang said.

"My wife keeps saying: 'Give me back my son! Give me back my son!' I can only tell her that our son's gone."

He said he felt worried for other children in the village because many of them went to play near the site. "I really hope the department will pump away the water from the pool as soon as possible so that a tragedy will not happen to other families."

Director of Drainage Services Peter Lau Ka-keung said an open channel was being built to control the stream and prevent flooding.

"The work is to widen, deepen and straighten the natural stream course. Last week, workers moved the stream course to make room to construct the foundation of the new open channel," he said. "But the typhoon and bad weather disrupted construction work." If work had gone ahead as planned, a stone layer would have been placed on the stream bed and the water would only have been about 60cm deep.

He also pointed out that notices and railings 1.1 metres tall, as widely used in construction sites to guard against public entry, had been placed at the spot. "But then these measures cannot prevent forceful entry made by some," he said.

Asked if the accident was caused by the boy's forceful entry to the project site, Mr Lau said: "We will remain in close contact with the village leader and collect opinions from him to see what we can do to make safety of the site even better."

He also said the contractor, the China Road and Bridge Corporation, had hired security guards to protect the site and they had visited it between 9am and noon on Sunday.

But he declined to say whether the guards visited the site in the afternoon when the accident happened.

"This incident might be taken to the coroner's court. So there is some information I cannot reveal," he said.

 

4 Airport rail link not financially viable, study finds
Dennis Eng Sep 30, 2008

Prohibitive costs and limited demand are expected to plague the proposed 30km rail link between the Hong Kong and Shenzhen airports, which will take more than a decade to eke out a 3 per cent return, according to a Chinese University study.

Law Cheung-kwok, associate director of the university's Aviation Policy and Research Centre, said the project was not financially viable.

Government officials and Shenzhen airport authorities generally agreed with the study's preliminary findings, Dr Law said, despite a lack of data on the ambitious project.

He suggested the government consider other alternatives, including improving the existing SkyPier ferry service between the two airports with smaller and faster boats to increase the efficiency and frequency of service.

"The transport infrastructure of Guangzhou , Shenzhen and Hong Kong is evolving and will affect the way visitors in the Pearl River Delta make travel plans and select airports. But how this will impact Hong Kong's aviation industry is unknown," Dr Law said.

The full report will be forwarded to the government soon.

A government spokesman said a study commissioned by the Task Force on Airport Co-operation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen on the project's feasibility was expected to be completed this year. It will cover rail alignments, detailed planning development and overall transport development strategies as well as economic benefits. The taskforce had its first meeting in January.

"On financial viability, it's too early to comment at this stage. We need to complete the consultancy study first," the spokesman said.

Assuming the project costs HK$30 billion - and that tickets were priced at HK$400 for a single trip, there were no alternative modes of transport and the number of passengers, estimated at about 689,000, grew 21 per cent a year - the rail link would take a dozen years to generate a 3 per cent rate of return, the study found.

Dr Law said few passengers would pay HK$400 to take the rail link, but reducing the price to HK$200 would mean it would take at least two decades to achieve a return.

But the rail link would help Hong Kong's airport enlarge its catchment area in the two cities by between 5 per cent and 7 per cent, as more passengers opted for Hong Kong given the shorter travel time via the rail link.

The findings assume a direct rail link between the airports for transit passengers, and does not consider the possibility of stations in the city centre or the addition of residential or commercial developments.

The rail link was included in 10 large-scale infrastructure projects that Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen highlighted in his policy address in October last year. The idea was first floated last year by the Bauhinia Foundation, a think-tank close to the government.