in the vicinity of Tinshuiwai could be far less due to the fact that the consortium bding Tinshuiwai will, in order to make its project viable, have to put in infra- structure at its expense, thereby obviating the necessity of the Government putting in that same infrastructure which would be required to build and service the airport in Northern Lantau.
According to a Government source, the cost of building an airport on Lantau would be about $HK20 billion. A breakdown of the costs is $HK2.4 billion for a 3-bridge com- plex linking Lantau to Mawan Island and the Peninsula, access roads to Cheklapkok at $HK400 million, the airport complex itself including the runway at $HK10 billion, and reclamation at the Northern part of Lantau at about $HK8 billion. This puts the price-tog at about $HK20.8 billion, but between now and the latter part of next year when the decision will be taken whether or not to build the airport on Lantau, costs could escalate another 30 percent or more, planners of the airport believe,
One of the problems with Northern Lantau is that it will be difficult to build the airport because of the topography of the area.
Tinshuiwai, on the other hand, located in the Northwestern part of the New Terri- tories between Yuenlong and Laufaushan, is a much flatter area and if land could be reclaimed from the sea just at the fork in the Peninsular, the proposed new air- port could be fitted in very nicely at a very much reduced cost compared with building the same airport on Lantau Island.
With 500,000 people to be settled, access roads to the new airport, and all the other infrastructure required to support a township of this size, would be an auto- matic matter for the developers of Tinshuiwai.
And the Government is now thinking that possibly much of the costs of the new replace- ment airport could be shaved down by using the Tinshuiwai development as a substitute
location for Lantau.
There is also the political expedient in that the Chinese Government, owns 51 percent of the Tinshi project.
Where Lantau is in the middle of nowhere, Tinshuiwai is in the very hub of the northern New Territories, not too far from the border with China and not too far from hongkong: Strategically placed insofar as access roads are concerned since it skirts the unmun Highway.
In additio the Government is now believed to be very concerned that our container port in cichung is inadequate to meet Hongkong's future demands indeed even facilities cre strained.
now
-2-