ENG-1961 — Page 299

COMMUNICATIONS

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between Hong Kong and China. Three new diesel electric locomo- tives were delivered during the year, and the British section now has eight of these. The section also maintains one steam locomo- tive which is kept in reserve, a rail-bus, 49 passenger coaches and 210 wagons. Twenty three new coaches are on order for delivery in 1962. All trains are pulled by the diesel electric locomotives.

ROADS

To keep pace with the ever increasing flow of traffic in the Colony nearly eight million dollars was spent during the year on the improvement and reconstruction of existing roads and on building new roads.

More main roads are needed to serve projected housing and industrial areas and additional feeder roads are required in the agricultural sections of the New Territories. The demands upon the financial resources of the Colony for road works are therefore considerable, particularly as all roads must be surfaced in con- crete or bituminous materials to withstand tropical rainfall. Moreover, improvements which necessitate the purchase of adjoin- ing land are frequently extremely expensive. To keep abreast of the rapid development in the new towns of Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan, which have been built largely on land reclaimed from the sea, considerable lengths of new roads were constructed. These included a section of the Kwun Tong Road dual carriageway through Ngau Tau Kok and the final stage of the Texaco Road widening, also designed to provide a dual carriageway.

Three major projects, which were completed in 1961, have greatly improved traffic conditions. The first was Lung Cheung Road, which runs along the lower slopes of the Kowloon foothills linking Kai Tak in the east to Tai Po Road in the west. The road provides some fine views and is popular with visitors and tourists. The second project was the improvement to Castle Peak Road, between Kowloon and Tsuen Wan, which was widened to a dual carriageway over most of its length. The road serves the growing industrial centre of Tsuen Wan which, with Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi, is being planned to accommodate an eventual population of some 650,000 people. It is also the main route to the western part of the New Territories and is now carrying more than 10,000 vehicles per day. The third major project completed during the year was