ENG-1961 — Page 275

PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

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the pilot contract for Kwai Chung Development scheme has been let and the main contract will be let early in 1962. This will pro- vide 500 acres of new land, including both hill sites and reclama- tion, in five years. The formation work (excluding services), which is being carried out by consulting engineers, is expected to cost about $85,000,000.

Other major site formation schemes in hand include the Military Hospital, low cost housing at Valley Road and high class housing at Waterloo Road Hill, totalling about 65 acres. In addition, pro- posals have been submitted for development by private enterprise, to a plan prepared by Government, of 183 acres of land opened up by the new Lung Cheung Road on the south side of the Kowloon foothills.

Local Public Works in the New Territories. The New Territories Administration runs a scheme to supply building materials and so encourage villagers to use their own labour on minor village works which are too small for the Government's public works pro- gramme. Where, for exceptional reasons, villages cannot supply or hire labour from their own resources, District Officers may let contracts for the entire work. For larger or more complex jobs the work may be handled by the New Territories Engineering Unit which is under the supervision of an engineer seconded from the Public Works Department. This self-help scheme has grown considerably in recent years and $1.5 million was provided for it in the financial year 1961-2.

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During 1961 villagers completed many jobs such as pathways, van tracks, drainage channelling, bunds, kerbs, irrigation channel- ling, dams, wells, bridges, playgrounds and piers. One of the most popular schemes is the installation of piped water supplies from intakes or small dams or wells in the nearby hills and fields and piping is regularly supplied for this purpose.

In addition, the New Territories Engineering Unit placed 16 contracts to a total value of some $280,000 during 1961. Six of these were for footbridges, two for aqua-privy latrines, four for river training and flood control works, one for a village water supply, and three for footpaths. Two of these footpaths, each one and a half miles long, have provided the first all-weather land