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LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
laboratories, a fire station and public car park. Foundations were completed in part in 1983 to enable work to start on the District Court and Magistracy and the office building early in 1984. The other buildings are being planned and will be constructed later.
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In line with the plan to provide more medical facilities, many hospital projects were in hand during the year. Queen Mary Hospital, the major hospital for Hong Kong Island originally built in the 1930s and improved through the years - will be further extended by the addition of more wards in a tower block due for completion in 1987. As part of associated improvement works, a new Physiotherapy Department and the installation of a whole-body scanner were completed in September. A 1 600-bed general hospital for the Tuen Mun and Yuen Long area was under construction in the New Territories. Its facilities include psychiatric wards and a radio therapy unit and the design incorporates a new concept of wide hospital 'streets' to link the wards. The Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin was substantially completed in November. This large 1 400-bed hospital, serving the eastern New Territories, will be the teaching hospital for the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Major military projects in hand at the end of the year included site formation works at Kohima Barracks on Clear Water Bay peninsula and construction of military quarters at Stanley Fort, Sek Kong Village, Castle Peak and Stonecutters Island. A closed refugee camp on Hei Ling Chau was completed and work commenced on another camp in Tuen Mun.
As Hong Kong International Airport will serve the territory into the 1990s, planning was under way for the expansion of the passenger terminal facilities to cope with the anticipated growth in traffic. Work will start in 1984 and the new facilities will be fully operational by mid-1987.
Mindful of Hong Kong's heritage, the government was working on the restoration of a 150-year-old Hakka village in Sai Kung Country Park. The village will serve as a folk museum when it opens in February 1984.
Private Building
Building development in the private sector in 1983 reacted to the prevailing socio-economic situation: construction work stopped on a number of building sites and approved building proposals were subjected to revision. The latter took the form of a general reduction in the size of residential units and a change from commercial to residential use. The usable floor area of building projects for which consent to commence works was given increased by 35 per cent over that in 1982.
During 1983, 496 proposals for private building development were submitted to the Buildings Ordinance Office for approval, compared with 604 in 1982. Occupation permits issued for completed buildings numbered 523, providing a total usable floor area of 3 061 289 square metres. This represented an approximate decrease of three per cent below the previous year. The total sum expended on private building work, excluding the cost of land, was $11,962 million, an increase of 18 per cent. Building contractors registered under the Buildings Ordinance numbered 2 502 at the end of the year.
Some confidence in luxury flat development was manifested in the continuing work on several large residential projects in Happy Valley and Jardine's Lookout. On the commercial side, work continued steadily on Exchange Square, on the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's headquarters and on the new Hong Kong Club building. Also being built during the year was the second grandstand at Sha Tin Racecourse, which will have seating capacity for 37 000, and the power station at Castle Peak, both of which were half finished. Site formation work started at Kornhill opposite Tai Koo Shing in