It is interesting to note that good quality sand and aggregate for this scheme is being imported from Canton at a cheaper rate than can be obtained locally.
Letter-boxes are being incorporated in the front doors of individual flats on this estate, this method being considered more convenient for tenants than the system of central delivery boxes used on the North Point Estate.
Messrs. Rediffusion (Hong Kong) Ltd. were given permission to install rediffusion on the estate, at no cost to the Authority. Conduits for risers and horizontals are being placed in position during the course of building work, leaving the connexions to individual flats to be wired when tenants ask for service. The Hong Kong Telephone Company has been asked to make provision for telephone lines to the estate office, community centre, public call-boxes, and also to consider possible requirements in flats.
The approach road to the site was completed by P.W.D. at a cost of $198,174.95, which will be borne by the Authority. Details of the godown accommodation incorporated in the ground and mezzanine floors of Block E, on the Cadogan Street frontage, were advertised in the local press in February, but the response was disappointing.
It was agreed that the name of Sai Wan Chuen () should be adopted for the estate, and the various blocks named West, South, Centre, North and East Terraces.
SO UK ESTATE
(Consortium consisting of Mr. Eric Cumine, as Chairman-architect, and Messrs. Chau & Lee, Messrs. Leigh & Orange,
Mr. H. S. Luke, and Mr. W. Szeto)
The Authority's third scheme, the So Uk Estate at Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, is its most ambitious to date. It is probably one of the largest domestic housing developments ever carried out as an integrated whole in the Far East, with an estimated capital cost of over $50m. The scheme prepared by Mr. Cumine, which has been tentatively adopted as utilizing the site (which is of about 18.79 acres in extent) to the best advantage, envisages the construction of about 4,600 flats to house about 30,000 persons in 12- or 16-storey blocks: that is a density of approximately 1,500 persons to the acre. Included in the estate are two 18-classroom primary schools, an assembly hall, about thirty shops, an estate office, clinic and Post Office.
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