13.
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The PAA has also done a considerable amount of other vital
work, building up a capable team from virtually nothing, producing its
master plan and financial plan, and getting work started on the site.
14.
Let me now turn to the financing of the railway. We have
proposed to inject equity of $3 billion into the MTRC. The MTRC will,
incidentally, pay us back the same amount, $3 billion, for public works to support the building of the Airport Railway. We propose to offer further callable equity of $8.8 billion to reassure their lenders that the MTRC's borrowings will be repaid, if things do not turn out as well as we have anticipated. That money is not supposed to be paid other
than in exceptional cirucmstances : we have designed the financial
package so that it is unlikely that it would have to be called at all.
15.
The public will get for $3 billion of public money a modern, efficient, environmentally friendly railway which costs $22.1 billion to build. What is more, we propose to allow the MTRC to develop sites over and around their stations land that would be largely undevelopable after the stations and railway lines had been built - and the MTRC will pay the Government around $20 billion in premium for it before 1997, with another $20 billion going to the SAR Land Fund.
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16.
This is outstanding value for money. The community will not only get speedy access to the new airport but much needed relief for the travelling public of congestion on the routes between Central and Kwai Chung. It will also provide rapid access to Tsing Yi and the new towns planned for North Lantau. And it will make recreational areas on
Lantau accessible from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon in 30 minutes.