Express railway bound to bust budget, independent MTR director says
The high-speed cross-border railway "must cost more than the budget" of HK$67 billion, an independent director of the MTR said.
The high-speed cross-border railway "must cost more than the budget" of HK$67 billion, an independent director of the MTR said.
The comment from Professor Frederick Ma Si-hang, who chaired an internal investigation into delays in completing the line, came after lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun quoted MTR sources as saying the cost would jump to HK$80 billion from the approved HK$67 billion.
The MTR has announced completion of the cross-border line will be delayed by two years till 2017 because of difficulties with work on the West Kowloon Terminus and at the border. It also blamed storm damage to a tunnel boring machine.
Ma said yesterday that the MTR had submitted an estimate to the government, but he refused to reveal the amount. .
"It must cost more than what was granted," he said, noting the project was government-funded.
The Transport and Housing Bureau said that, by March 31, the MTR had received 611 valid claims from contractors for additional work, totalling about HK$10.7 billion.
