No_1_1957 — Page 29

:

The complete scheme as originally envisaged.

NEW P.W.D. OFFICES IN KOWLOON

The phenomenal growth of the for Government to plan office facilities found that the present arrangement of Kowloon side of the harbour during for engineers, surveyors, draughtsmen, offices centralized on the Hong Kong the past few years, and the fact that etc., whose work is entirely confined side to which the staff had to return

to that side. this development progress showed no

their duties in signs of slackening, made it necessary

The Public Works

The completed Office Block and Stores Depots.

27

after carrying out

Department Kowloon, was not only a hardship on the individual, but a waste of time in travelling which could be employed to better advantage.

Another disadvantage of the cen- tralized system was the concentration of records and the difficulty of ready reference when required on the other side. Finally, the question of the handling and keeping track of depart- mental stores and equipment, it was felt, could be more easily dealt with if the two main areas of the Colony were separated and administered from their own respective districts.

With this end in view, plans were prepared for a Public Works Depart- ment office block and depot to be erected on Farm Road in the Ma Tau Wei district, near Kowloon City, to be combined with ancillary buildings and areas which would provide the Roads Office and the Drainage Office with their own administration and stores control centre on and for the Kowloon side.

The complete scheme envisages, in addition to the office block and depot building, an Electrical and Mechanical Workshops building similar to the one erected at Caroline Hill and a three- storey building for the Stores Depart-

ment.