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Dr. IP : When the construction of an elevated road or flyover results in a
noise level which according to EPCOM is intolerable for residents living by,
and if Government's measures to rectify this fail, will Government consider this
to be good ground for compensation if so what nature may this compensation be?
Secretary for Lands and Works :- Well, I think a measure of whether the noise
level is tolerable or not would be indicated by the number of complaints we
EPCOM are received. I believe the guideline figures advocated by figures lifted from
western countries and of course in the Hong Kong situation we are in a very
densely populated environment. Noise is quite a common element in our life
and of course as I said in my main reply we should do all we can to reduce
the impact of noise from the roads in our planning and in our construction.
Mr. Stephen CHEONG :- In the light of the fact that EPCOM probably adopt a
standard which is not particularly unique to Hong Kong and in the light of
the Secretary's answer that with a 3-metre high barrier the decibel reduction
is only one, is it really worth the Government's while to spend all the expenses
to send in people to Japan to study this particular problem? (laughter)
Secretary for Lands and Works :- This professional is there for another
purpose, in fact, originally. Now that the question of traffic noise from
road structure has come up, I have asked him to stay over in Japan for 3
more days to study this problem.