Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1963-1964 — Page 24

for selling roast meat, and the remainder for other trades. The g floor workshops house a wide variety of small enterprises, while s are also allowed to carry on certain simple cottage industries in upper- domestic rooms. Plans of typical multi-storey buildings will be fo at Appendices IV to VI.

46. In the ten years that have elapsed since the first six storey blocks were built at Shek Kip Mei, the Public Works Department has con- structed 201 resettlement blocks to the initial 'H' type design and an additional 36 'I' type blocks designed to make use of smaller sites. A modification introduced in 1961 altered the external appearance of the design very considerably, especially when viewed from the ends, whilst not affecting the layout or number of the internal rooms. The ends of the arms of the 'H' blocks were connected by a hollow block concrete screen, and additional rooms of a new and enlarged size, each with its individual balcony, were provided. Since the introduction of this amended design, known as Mark II, 91 of these blocks have been built and the last of them were under construction in the Lo Fu Ngam Estate at the end of the period under review.

47. One striking feature of the resettlement programme has been the speed with which blocks have been planned and constructed. This began in the early days of resettlement. By the end of 1954 the Architectural Office of the Public Works Department had produced standard drawings which made it possible to prepare working drawings and specifications for a building contract at very short notice. An example of this is a seven- storey building containing 840 rooms which was one of the first to be constructed at the Li Cheng Uk Estate. Once the piling had been completed, this building was finished in about eight weeks. By the end of the first financial year in which permanent resettlement buildings were planned and constructed, seventeen of six or seven storeys, containing in all 8,508 rooms, were complete and plans for building an additional twenty-five blocks containing 12,698 rooms were well advanced. This good start has not been an isolated phenomenon, and it is a tribute to the Colony's efficient building industry as well as the Public Works Department that by 31st March, 1964, 247 multi-storey blocks had been constructed, comprising 115,021 rooms. The number of authorized persons living in the estates at the end of March was 544,155, an increase of 81,573 during the year (see Appendices II and III). In addition, there were about 31,000 tolerated unauthorized persons. The department opened its thirteenth estate towards the end of March 1964. A list of the estates showing the population of each is at Appendix II, while Appendix III

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