ENG-2009 — Page 278

218 | Infrastructure Development and Heritage Conservation

Land Disposal

While government land available for disposal for permanent development is usually offered for sale through public auction, sale through public tender is also a practice in certain circumstances, such as when the sites being offered for sale do not attract wide interest. Petrol filling station sites are one such example. In some cases, land may be made available by private treaty grant. Since January 2004, the Government has made land available to the market mainly through the Application List System, a market-driven mechanism. In 2009, one commercial-cum-residential site, two residential sites and five petrol filling stations covering a total area of about 4.635 hectares were sold for nearly $11.076 billion.

Holders of private land leases wishing to amend their leases may seek the Government's permission to do so. They may also apply for permission to carry out different types of development on their land in accordance with prevailing planning intention. During the year, 119 lease modification and land exchange transactions were concluded, involving about 296.62 hectares of land and land premiums amounting to $4.35 billion.

Land Management and Lease Enforcement

The Lands Department manages properties which have reverted to government ownership through voluntary surrender, expiry of government leases, resumption, re-entry or vesting actions. During the year, 36 new properties were taken over for management and eight properties were disposed of. The department currently manages 478 properties.

The department's work in identifying people responsible for the maintenance of registered man-made slopes is continuing. The results of this probe are contained in a 'Slope Maintenance Responsibility Information System' for public inspection. The Lands Department is responsible for maintaining about 18 300 man-made slopes. With the help of private consultants, it carries out regular inspection of these slopes and employs contractors to carry out routine maintenance and stabilisation works. During the year, routine maintenance works were carried out on 6 300 slopes and stabilisation works on 370 slopes.

The Lands Department administers a 'Small House Policy' for indigenous villagers in the New Territories and approves the rebuilding of old village houses. During the year, 1 290 applications for the building of small houses and 293 applications for the rebuilding of old village houses were approved. The department is also responsible for processing rent exemption requisitions for indigenous villagers' rural properties in accordance with the exemption criteria of the Government Rent (Assessment and Collection) Ordinance.

In collaboration with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Lands Department continues to operate a scheme for the display of non-commercial publicity materials or banners at 22 349 designated spots in public places.

The Lands Department took over squatter control work from the Housing Department on April 1, 2006. At present, there are about 6 790 surveyed squatter