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PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
was slight. A more disrupting factor than the rains were the diffi- culties which some contractors experienced in financing their contracts, and this delayed the completion of some of the works.
Construction work on the resettlement and government low-cost housing programme continued during the year incorporating new designs of buildings which, in addition to providing a private balcony to each room, now include an individual toilet and mains water supply. Twenty-five 16-storey and four eight-storey resettlement domestic blocks, mainly of this new type and capable of housing about 117,000 people, were completed. In addition 11 24-classroom schools to provide primary school facilities were completed in estates. Some 524,000 square feet of factory working space was also constructed in six seven-storey flatted factories. Only two low-cost housing domestic blocks, providing accommodation for about 6,300 people, were finished although four more blocks were nearing completion. At the end of the year, construction work was progressing on 56 16-storey and three eight-storey resettlement domestic buildings, together with 22 24-classroom estate schools. Eleven low-cost housing domestic buildings, nine of them of 20 storeys and two of 12 storeys, and one 24-classroom estate school were being built. In addition tenders had been received for a further six domestic blocks and two schools.
On Hong Kong Island, buildings completed during the year included a standard two-bay fire station with quarters at Shau Kei Wan and a similar ambulance depot at Morrison Hill; Public Works Department depots and workshops together with Civil Aid Services headquarters at Caroline Hill; 121 married quarters for the Preventive Service; extensions and new buildings at Queen Mary Hospital which provide a new radiodiagnostic wing, operating theatres, a physiotherapy department, professorial suites and medical training facilities, and new sisters' and nurses' quarters; extensions to the Aberdeen Police Training School; 721 police rank and file married quarters at Kennedy Town; 17 married quarters at Kennedy Town for abattoir staff; and beach buildings at three beaches.
Buildings completed during the year in Kowloon and the New Territories included two primary schools at Au Tau and South Lantau; Tai O marine licensing station at Castle Peak; two clinics
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