TNAG-1735-FCO40-2448-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 69

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — 1 June 1988

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have much effect on the Lion Rock Tunnel or other traffic congestion in the New Territories. I shall be quite happy to refer this view to the joint working group.

MR. CHUNG (in Cantonese): Sir, the Secretary says that people crossing Man Kam To at peak hours will inevitably experience some delay. Is the delay caused by the Chinese side or by the Hong Kong side? If it is on the Hong Kong side, is it because we do not have sufficient staff?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: No, Sir, this is quite simply the amount of traffic approaching from each side at any given time. Sometimes there is a preponder- ance of traffic on the Hong Kong side; sometimes on the Chinese side. And at peak hours, inevitably, there is some delay.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT: I have three more Members' names down to ask supplementaries. I propose to limit it at that otherwise we shall not get on to the rest of the questions in the usual time.

MR. CHEUNG (in Cantonese): Sir, the queue of the vehicles going through the crossing point at Man Kam To is sometimes several miles long and take up part of the road, and it is fortunate that the other lane of the road is still available for traffic. But, some drivers who want to jump the queue use the spare lane and they have caused traffic congestion. Can the Government send traffic policemen to patrol the area so that such queue jumping will not happen? And will the Secretary consider restricting the number of licences authorising cars to go through the border in order to alleviate the situation?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, the queues are patrolled by police on a regular basis. I have not had any particular complaints about queue-jumping brought to my attention. I shall, however, mention this to the police and ask that they keep an eye on that sort of thing.

I am not quite sure what my hon. Friend meant by limiting the licences of cars but if he means the number of cars crossing the border, this is not a practice, Sir, which is followed at border crossing points and I see no reason why it should be introduced at Man Kam To.

MR. LAI (in Cantonese): The congestion at Man Kam To is very often caused by the duplication of procedures on both the Chinese side and Hong Kong side. On Hong Kong side, we look for contraband goods, whereas on the Chinese side, they look at the goods from the duty collection angle. Could the Administration inform this Council whether there are measures in the pipeline to improve the situation?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, each side must, of course, follow its own procedures for these matters, whether they are customs or whether they are immigration. It might in future years be possible to streamline this somewhat