August_1970 — Page 4

Arsenal Street flyover, HK

First San Po Kong flyover, Kowloon

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San Po Kong interchange was also opened to traffic last month. These three flyovers, costing about HK$11 million, will merge with three others at the Kowloon City interchange to free traffic flow and ease congestion in north-east Kowloon.

Incentive for hotel builders

To encourage the building of more first class hotels in Kuala Lumpur, the government has re- laxed certain regulations governing their develop- ment. The new regulations relate to car parking requirements and apply to hotels up to the four- star class.

In future hotel developers will need to provide one car park for every 1,500 sq. ft. of floor area

for shopping arcades and commercial offices within the hotel complex, compared with one parking bay for every 1,000 sq. ft. previously.

Conference halls, auditoriums, seminar rooms, exhibition halls and display galleries will need one car park per 1,000 sq. ft. instead of one per 500 sq. ft., while bowling alleys will need one car park per lane instead of two per lane.

For every eight hotel bedrooms there will be one car parking bay and also one bay for every 250 sq. ft. of restaurant, dining area, night club, public bar and cocktail lounge.

Relaxation of the car parking requirements was one of the recommendations of the Government committee set up in 1968 to consider the question of tourist hotels. Other recommendations were for a further easing in the planning standards for first- class hotels and a review of all existing planning approvals.

Metrication sub-committees

Eight specialist sub-committees, from building construction and civil engineering to the import and export trades, have been set up by Hong Kong's Metrication Committee.

The sub-committees. formed at the main com- mittee's second meeting last month, will examine in depth the implications for Hong Kong of the increasing world-wide use of the metric system of weights and measures. They are to advise the main committee whether there is a need for changing to the metric system and, if so, on the timing and procedure for such a change.

A spokesman said last month that reference to the committee could be made by any organisation wishing to seek its advise and assistance. The chair- man is Dr. the Hon. S.Y. Chung, and the secretary, Mr. J.C.C. Chan of the Economic Branch of the Colonial Secretariat.

Hotel and catering school

Singapore's unprecedented boom in new hotel construction has brought an urgent demand for trained hotel personnel. To meet this the Singapore Government has embarked on a crash programme for building a modern hotel and catering school as an expansion of the present school and to be known at Hotel Premier.

The new school, believed to be the only one of its kind in S.E. Asia, is being erected at Nassim Hill, Singapore, under the supervision of the Public Works Department, Architectural Division.

Construction began in March this year and should be completed by May 1971. The complex will cost about S$2.5 million and is backed by financial and technical assistance from the UK Government and the United Nations Development Programme.

The scheme involves the conversion of an existing three-storey block of flats, facing the main road, into a hotel and the erection of a new three- storey school block and a swimming pool at the

Far East BUILDER, August 1970