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Chapter 12
Land, Public Works and Utilities
As Hong Kong's population continues to grow, its infrastructure has to change to meet the demands of public need and efficiency. New roads are needed to cope with increased traffic; new sources of energy are required to power new industry, office blocks and housing projects; and social and recreational facilities have to be developed.
To meet the needs of the community, the Government is committed to maintaining a sizeable investment in building new infrastructure and improving existing facilities. It will spend about $32 billion on capital works in 2004-05, and has earmarked an average annual provision of about $29 billion for capital works expenditure in the next few years.
The Government completed a number of major capital works projects in 2004 which included the construction of the first phase of the Science Park at Pak Shek Kok, the Trunk Road T7 in Ma On Shan, and the redevelopment of the Police Headquarters at Arsenal Street, Wan Chai. It also started construction of the Stonecutters Bridge, the new Headquarters Building for the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and the improvement to Tung Chung Road. Other major construction works in progress include the remaining works of the School Improvement Programme, the third phase of the Central Reclamation, the second stage of Penny's Bay reclamation, Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor, Deep Bay Link, Route 8, implementation of the flood prevention programme and the territory- wide replacement and rehabilitation of trunk water-mains.
As part of the Government's comprehensive Slope Safety Strategy, a 10-year Landslip Preventive Measures (LPM) Programme, with a budget of about $9 billion, was launched in April 2000 to systematically upgrade substandard government slopes and carry out safety screening of private slopes. In addition, about $700 million will be spent in 2004-05 to maintain government slopes. For private slopes, a revised loan scheme on building safety improvement was set up in July 2001 to provide assistance to owners who needed financial assistance to maintain their slopes. To further enhance visual harmony with the surroundings, landscaping will be included in upgraded or newly formed government slopes.