CHAPTER 15
Infrastructure Projects
AS THE new century began, Hong Kong embarked with enterprise and determination on a further round of infrastructural development. In 2000, key decisions were made, or significant steps taken, in respect of projects ranging from major new roads and railway lines to hi-tech industrial developments.
Overall, more than 1000 projects in the Public Works Programme are under way, with annual expenditure ranging from $25 billion to $30 billion on average for the next five years, depending on actual works progress. In addition, the two railway corporations are expected to invest about $100 billion in expansion of their networks over the next four to five years.
The amount of money to be invested far exceeds the spending on the new airport and related projects, which dominated infrastructural works in the 1990s. Taken together, the various new major infrastructural works and other projects in the Public Works Programme will create tens of thousand of jobs in the coming years. In 2000, 32 800 jobs had been created already, including 8 100 on the railway projects alone.
Railway Projects
The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) continued to make significant progress in 2000 on its West Rail (Phase 1), which will provide a 30.5-kilometre line in the western part of Hong Kong, connecting West Kowloon and Tuen Mun, via Yuen Long. Construction work began in 1998 and, in overall terms, by the end of the year the project was more than one-third complete, and well on target for the railway to commence service by the end of 2003.
Among project milestones during the year were the topping out of the Kam Sheung Road Station - the first West Rail station to have its structure substantially completed -- which will serve Pat Heung and Kam Tin in Yuen Long, and the completion of the Pat Heung Road Viaduct. The railway will have seven intermediate stations between the Kowloon terminus in Sham Shui Po and the northern terminus in Tuen Mun — at Mei Foo, Tsuen Wan West, Kam Sheung Road, Yuen Long, Long Ping, Tin Shui Wai and Siu Hong.
In October, the Government authorised the construction of the Ma On Shan (MOS) Rail and an extension of the East Rail line from Hung Hom to Tsim Sha Tsui East. The MOS Rail will be connected to the existing East Rail at Tai Wai Station. The KCRC has started construction works and the railway projects are expected to be completed in 2004.
The corporation is also moving forward with plans to build an extension of the existing East Rail from Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau, and called the Sheung
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