C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL 機密
XCC(77)54
Copy No Page 15 of 18
of 80
is postponed the greater the problems will become at crucial points. At some stage, which may not be too far distant, the physical problems of construction at these points, while maintaining an adequate traffic flow, would become extremely difficult.
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There are thus strong arguments on transport grounds for proceeding with this extension as quickly as possible. These are reinforced by the following financial and practical considerations:
(a)
(b)
between $200 million and $400 million
might be saved in mobilisation and contract costs, due to the presence of contractors' equipment in Hong Kong and the experience gained by the contractors constructing the MIS (paragraph 24);
an early return could be obtained on the investment of $400 million made in the MIS to facilitate extensions (paragraph 15(c));
(c) the Corporation would be able to utilise the
expertise of the technical and engineering staff which it has built up to supervise the construction of the MIS. To build up this expertise again (and it involves more than 700 persons) would be expensive and time- consuming (paragraph 15(b));
.
(d) the service made available by the MTR system as
a whole would be improved at an early date, with particular significance for public transport services in the Tsuen Wan corridor (paragraph 38);
(e)
(f)
to postpone construction would lead to an escalation of costs, because of inflation, and give rise to greater physical difficulties of construction in increasingly congested road conditions (paragraph 24); and
the present is a favourable time to arrange both internal and external borrowing to finance the costs of construction (paragraph 15(b)).
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For these reasons it is concluded that the balance of argument is strongly in favour of the Corporation being authorised to proceed with the extension of the MIS to Tsuen Wan at the earliest possible date.
CONFIDENTIAL
機密