ENG-1991 — Page 260

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

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In parallel with planning of the new airport, improvement to the Kai Tak International Airport is still ongoing. Three of the five phases for the refurbishment of the existing passenger terminal building have been completed with upgrading of facilities, including the addition of internal and external escalators, fire services, air-conditioning installation and renovation of the VIP suites. The work will be completed in mid-1992. Three additional floors of office space and the new 'Commercially Important Persons Accommodation' has been completed and added to the existing terminal building. An extension of two and a half storeys to the carpark with the addition of 452 spaces was completed in July. The new aircraft recovery and salvage equipment depot was completed in August. Construction of the new Royal Hong Kong Auxillary Air Force building is in progress and will be completed by mid-1992. Work for the new Transfer Vehicle Dock 'G' started in October and is scheduled to be completed by October 1992. Modification work to the existing Transport Terminus, which is part of the Kai Tak Access Improvement Scheme, started in September and work will be completed by the end of 1992.

As well as carrying out its own building contracts, the Subvented Projects Division of Architectural Services Department advises departments providing subvention to private organisations for building, repair and maintenance works. These include subventions provided by Education, Health, Hospital Services, Technical Education and Industrial Training, and Social Welfare Departments and the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee.

The combined government commitments on subvented projects via the Capital Works Reserve Fund and the Lotteries Fund exceeds $12 billion and expenditure is expected to be in excess of $3 billion during the year. These sums exclude private funding. Advice is also given on the provision of government accommodation in private developments. Examples in this connection include joint-venture housing, office accommodation and transport interchanges.

Drainage Services

The Drainage Services Department is responsible for planning, designing, constructing, operating and maintaining the sewerage, sewage treatment and stormwater drainage infrastructures. The disposal of foul water, that is domestic sewage and trade and industrial effluent, is based on standards, strategies and programmes drawn up by the Environmental Protection Department. From a programme implementation point of view, projects can be divided into three categories: 'existing schemes' which are sewerage or sewage treatment projects which have been in the public works programme before the new strategy evolved and which are compatible with the new strategy for the treatment and disposal of sewage to satisfy new water quality standards; 'sewerage masterplan schemes' which are sewerage rehabilitation and improvement projects to ensure the proper collection of sewage in foul sewers, and the 'strategic sewage disposal scheme' which is a massive project to collect all the sewage from Chai Wan, Shau Kei Wan and areas in Kowloon between Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong into a deep tunnel intercepting sewer system which will discharge, after treatment on Stonecutters Island, through a long sea outfall into the Dangan Channel.

Making resolute progress towards completion by 1992 is the largest existing project, the North West Kowloon Sewage Treatment and Disposal Scheme. This scheme will collect, treat and discharge sewage from a population of 1.1 million in Sham Shui Po, Mong Kok