ENG-1977 — Page 152

HOUSING AND LAND

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Estate completed its first year of work. The programme aims to reduce, within 12 years, the present population of 37,000 to 30,000 housed in new blocks,

Notable among community facility projects in the Tsuen Wan area is the Tso Kung Tam Park, for which the preliminary design has been completed. The park, lying in the northern foothills, will consist of a 38-hectare suburban park in an attractive valley setting and a special Sport and Recreation Centre serving the whole territory. The most significant industrial development has been the start of a 12-year programme to develop dockyards on Tsing Yi Island. Government also has agreed in principle to the extension of the mass transit railway system to Tsuen Wan.

Tuen Mun New Town, which lies at the western extremity of the New Territories, is planned to have an ultimate population of around 530,000 people on about 1,180 hectares of land. Further extension of Tuen Mun into the So Kwun Wat area, cur- rently the subject of a feasibility study, could create further land for additional population. The development of Tuen Mun is planned in three stages. The first stage, at the northern end of Castle Peak Bay, provides 93 hectares of land for a population of 50,000 people. Land reclamation and other engineering work has been completed, and both private residential and industrial development is proceeding rapidly. The first phase of the Tai Hing public housing estate for 24,000 people is complete and the second phase for 22,300 has begun.

The second stage, which includes reclaiming 70 hectares of land in Castle Peak Bay, covers 124 hectares and will provide for a population of 150,000. The first and second stages will therefore accommodate a population of 200,000 people in a balanced township. Construction of the first public housing development in the second stage – the Sham Shing Estate - began during the year.

The third stage, on which design work has started, will create a further 43 hectares of land and bring the total population of Tuen Mun to 530,000. Landscape consult- ants appointed in 1977 have presented their interim proposals for a landscape master plan for Tuen Mun. Their final report and special area studies will be completed early in 1978. The first carriageway of the new road being built to connect Tuen Mun with Tsuen Wan is nearing completion.

Sha Tin lies at the south-western corner of Tolo Harbour, in the valley of the Shing Mun River and on both sides of Sha Tin Hoi. The development of Sha Tin New Town is divided into two stages, which together will provide 1,740 hectares of land for development and an eventual population of 550,000 people. During 1977, feasibility studies were carried out to consider both the Stage II development, centred mainly at the head of the Sha Tin valley and around Siu Lek Yuen, and two possible extension areas on either side of Sha Tin Hoi. These extension areas could provide a further 270 hectares of land for development and accommodate a population of about 130,000 people.

Planning and engineering work for Stage I development is well in hand and will gain further impetus with the start of Stage II. Lek Yuen public housing estate, with a population of 18,300 people, was completed in 1976 and two secondary schools in the estate are under construction. Work on Phase 1A of the Wo Che Estate is substantially complete and provides for a population of 14,000 people. Primary and secondary schools are under construction. The combined population of Wo Che and Lek Yuen estates will be in the region of 58,000 people.