BACKGROUND NOTE
1. The Mass Transit Railway will provide an efficient underground
transport system for the very congested areas of urban long Kong.
Work on the Modified Initial System (almost 10 miles long with 15
stations) is well advanced and is due to be completed in March 1980.
Work has also started on the Tsuen Wan Extension which is 63 miles
long and comprises 10 stations. At the North Tsuen Wan terminal a
rail depot and tail tracks are to be built over the cleared Sai Lau
Kok site.
2.
The construction of the system has involved the clearance of a
good deal of property in the urban areas of Hong Kong. The procedures
for the resumption of land for the Mass Transit Railway are governed
by the Mass Transit Railway (Land kesumption and Related Provisions)
Ordinance of 1974, amended in 1977.
Section 4 of the Ordinance deals
with resumption; it empowers the Governor to order the resumption of
any land within the railway area for the purposes of, and incidental
to the railway.
3. Where land has been resumed and reverted to the Crown, the llong
Kong Government have made every effort to provide alternative
accommodation for those concerned and to pay adequate compensation
to property owners.
4. Land clearance at Sai Lau Kok involves seven buildings which
contain domestic flats, shops and workshops. The land has been
resumed and reverted to the Crown in November 1978. The compensation
payable is therefore based on the value at that date.
Since then,
/however,