ENG-1995 — Page 253

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

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The new town will comprise two discrete urban development areas at Tung Chung and Tai Ho, with proposed populations of 150 000 and 50 000 respectively, by the year 2011. Possible expansion areas in the new town have the potential to accommodate an additional 60 000. Residential and commercial developments will be concentrated in the town centre and two district centres in Tung Chung and Tai Ho, each incorporating a Lantau Line railway station and a public transport terminus. The town centre will be the retail, commercial and cultural core of the new town. Other necessary retail and commercial facilities will be distributed in the district centres serving Tung Chung and Tai Ho, and local centres within housing areas. Land will be reserved at Siu Ho Wan for airport-related industrial uses and major utilities, including a water treatment works, a sewage treatment works, railway depot and a refuse transfer station.

There will be five phases of development for the new town between now and post- 2001. The first phase is earmarked as one of the Airport Core Programme projects and will be largely completed by 1997. It will accommodate about 20 000 residents at Tung Chung. Construction of the first stage of the North Lantau sewage collection, treatment and disposal system is under way. Work is expected to be completed in late 1996.

Elsewhere in the Islands District, major capital works including site formation for the rural public housing estate and Home Ownership Scheme in Sin Yan Tseng, Cheung Chau; upgrading of sewage treatment works in Mui Wo; and construction - works for the first rural public housing estate in Peng Chau, are progressing well.

Rural Planning and Improvement Strategy

The Rural Planning and Improvement Strategy (RPIS) aims to improve the quality of life in the rural areas of the New Territories. It is implemented at both strategic and district levels.

At the strategic level, land-use policies are continuously reviewed to control incompatible developments and provide a more sustainable and cost-effective basis for public and private investments. Several reviews and studies have been, or are being, undertaken, including studies of open storage and port back-up land require- ments, and a review of the rural improvement concept.

At the district level, improvement projects are undertaken under the rural develop- ment programmes. These are initiated, implemented and monitored by various district working groups.

The Home Affairs Department (formerly the City and New Territories Adminis- tration), by virtue of its close contacts with rural residents and groups, knowledge of local needs and well-established consultation mechanism, assumed control for the planning, management and implementation of minor rural improvement schemes. More local participation will also be promoted.

Major improvement works, such as river-training works, continued to be controlled by the Territory Development Department through either agent departments or consultants. The two-pronged, multi-tiered approach is expected to bring about progress in real terms both at the local and regional levels.