62. This is the reason why it has not proved possible to resettle more than 11,200 fire victims out of a total of over 50,000 persons resettled during the year, and why at the end of the year there were still about 10,500 fire victims on the streets. Plans have however been made for the resettlement of these 10,500 persons during the course of the next twelve months.
CHAPTER V
THE MULTI-STOREY ESTATES
63. The experience gained in the problems of multi-storey resettlement had by April 1955 shown conclusively that a practical solution to the squatter problem had at last been found. The speed with which the problem could be solved would hence- forward depend almost wholly on the speed with which multi-storey buildings could be built. The decision was therefore taken to press on with the construction of multi-storey buildings as rapidly as possible. Four more schemes which would provide accommodation for over 60,000 persons were approved and work was started on all four schemes simultaneously.
64. The first of these new schemes was at Li Cheng Uk where one very large building had already been completed. This made it possible for the department to clear and resettle the squatters occupying the remainder of this 16 acre site, a part of which had already been cleared by fire. By the end of the year an additional five blocks containing over 3,500 rooms had been completed and work on four of the five blocks of Stage II was well advanced.
65. In July, during the course of site excavation, an ancient tomb was discovered which proved to be of great historical interest. The Government therefore decided that the tomb should be permanently preserved, and should be surrounded by a large open space.
The number of sites for multi-storey blocks at Li Cheng Uk was thus reduced from thirteen to eleven. Further squatter clearances in December, however, made avail- able an additional adjoining site which the Government agreed to allocate in lieu of the sites surrendered.
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