ENG-1993 — Page 256

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

In Mui Wo, the construction of a fireboat berthing point and the upgrading of the existing sewerage system were in progress. An indoor recreation centre-cum-library was completed during the year.

Open space facilities and rehabilitation planting on North Lantau were under planning during the year.

Urban Development Areas

Work on the new urban development areas generally take account of the Metroplan. This document sets out a broad pattern of land use and guidelines for the planning and development of new areas, which integrate with the replanning and redevelopment of adjoining old areas in a co-ordinated manner.

Six development areas at Aldrich Bay, Siu Sai Wan, Hung Hom Bay, West Kowloon, Central and Wan Chai, and Belcher Bay all involving reclamations in Victoria Harbour

are under planning or construction to meet forecast requirements in the 1990s and beyond.

On completion, they will provide more than 580 hectares of land for urban area expansion, as well as make up for land use deficiencies, such as lack of open space and other facilities, in adjacent old urban areas.

The Aldrich Bay development will produce about 28 hectares of land for private residential and public housing, open space and other uses. The newly-completed typhoon shelter has already been put into use, while reclamation of the old typhoon shelter started in August 1992, for completion in phases between 1995 to 1999.

The Siu Sai Wan development includes the formation of about 56 hectares of land for industrial, residential, government, institutional, community and other uses. Land formation has been completed and developments have already taken place.

Twenty hectares of land have so far been formed at Hung Hom Bay, with a further 16 hectares due for completion in 1994. The reclamation is destined for residential, commercial and community facilities, open space, transport interchange facilities and expansion of the existing Kowloon-Canton Railway freight yard. Two new ferry piers and a bus concourse, constructed near Whampoa Garden, were opened in 1991.

Steady progress was maintained in the West Kowloon Reclamation, which is being implemented in stages up until 1996. The reclaimed area of some 340 hectares, extending from Lai Chi Kok and Stonecutters Island in the north to Yau Ma Tei in the south, will provide land for private and public housing, commerce and industry, government, institutional and community facilities, open space and other uses. In accordance with the Metroplan, it will provide opportunities for thinning out the existing high-density developments in the West Kowloon hinterland, as well as providing strategic transport links to serve the new airport at Chek Lap Kok, namely the Airport Railway, the West Kowloon Expressway and Western Harbour Crossing.

More than half of the area has been reclaimed. The project commenced in August 1990 and is estimated to cost $12.5 billion. A new 70-hectare Yau Ma Tei replacement typhoon shelter, 14 hectares larger than the previous one, was completed and opened in October 1992, and reclamation of the original shelter commenced shortly afterwards with a target completion date of 1995. A new wholesale market, occupying 10 hectares of the new reclamation, was opened in September 1993. The opening was achieved only 21 months after the first section of reclamation appeared above sea level.