ENG-2012 — Page 273

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Transport

New Boundary Crossings under Construction or Planning

In 2010, the Ministry of Transport of the Central People's Government approved the preliminary design of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), which will connect Hong Kong to the western part of Pearl River Delta. The governments of Guangdong, the HKSAR and the Macao Special Administrative Region established a Joint Works Committee of the Three Governments' to oversee the implementation of the HZMB project.

The HZMB Authority was set up in 2010 to co-ordinate the construction, operation, maintenance and management of the HZMB Main Bridge, and to implement various policies of the Joint Works Committee of the Three Governments Local works within HKSAR waters. continued in 2012 and will dovetail with those in the Mainland for the commissioning of the HZMB in 2016.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) will reduce rail travel time between Guangzhou and Hong Kong and link Hong Kong to Beijing and other major Mainland cities via the Beijing-Guangzhou passenger line and the Hangzhou-Fuzhou-Shenzhen passenger line. It will also connect Hong Kong to cities in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region via the Mainland's Rapid Transit System now under development. Construction of the Hong Kong section of the XRL commenced in January 2010 and is scheduled for completion in 2015.

The proposed Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point (BCP) will provide efficient access to the eastern part of Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi Provinces via the Shenzhen- Huizhou and Shenzhen-Shantou expressways. When the new BCP is commissioned in 2018, it will significantly shorten the travelling distance between Hong Kong and Shenzhen and the nearby provinces and greatly facilitate future regional co-operation and development. It will also help redistribute the cross-boundary traffic among the existing Man Kam To and Sha Tau Kok boundary crossings in the eastern part of the New Territories.

Cross Boundary Ferries

Cross-boundary ferry services to Macao and some 11 Mainland ports are provided by seven operators at the Hong Kong-Macao Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan and the China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui. The Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal ceased operation after the ferry operator terminated the tenancy agreement and returned the terminal to the Government in September 2012.

In 2012, 20.94 million travellers used cross-boundary ferry services to travel to and from Macao, while the number travelling to and from Mainland ports was 4.74 million.

The Port

In 2012, Hong Kong handled a total of 23.12 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units of containers (TEUs), maintaining its status as the largest container port serving southern China and the third busiest port in the world. Some 383,350 vessels arrived in and departed from Hong Kong during the year, carrying 269 million tonnes of cargo and about 28.52 million passengers. Most of these passengers commuted on a highly efficient fleet of high-speed ferries, including jetfoils and

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