Wednesday, March 28, 1973
25
GOVERNMENT DETERMINED TO GET ON WITH UNDERGROUND
Dr. the Hon. S.T. Chung today said that the decision to set up
a Mass Transit Fund showed that the Government was determined to get on
with the construction of the mass transit railway.
He was speaking in the Legislative Council in support of a motion
to establish a fund of $500 million for the project.
Dr. Chung hoped that "before the Government makes its final
decision on the award of contracts, there will be an opportunity for a
goneral-debate in this Council as we did in 1965 for the Cross Harbour
Road Tunnel."
He believed that this was the largest project in term of capital
cost that was ever carried out in Hong Kong.
"Assuming an inflation rate of 10 per cent per annum in the future
years, " he said, "the total cost for the full system will probably be
close to HK$15,000 million, which will be spread over the next 12 years
at an average rate of about HK$1,000 to $1,500 million each year," he said.
He added: "In order to appreciate the magnitude of the cost
involved, Honourable Members may be interested to know that it will cost
about HK$90,000 per foot length of the railway and that with the same
money we could build more than 20 cross-harbour road tunnels.
F
Dr. Chung urged the Government to look at the project from the
full system point of view and not only the first four of the nine stages.
He said that the mass transit railway would not really be serving
its purpose if the remaining stages were not eventually built.
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