Vehicles will drive on right and pay renminbi tolls on HK-Macau bridge

Vehicles on the new HK-Macau bridge will drive on the right and pay tolls in renminbi, the HZMB Management Bureau has announced.

The Zhuhai-based agency, which oversees construction and management of the 42km link across the Pearl River mouth, also confirmed that each city would have its own customs and immigration checkpoint.

The bridge and the checkpoints will be in operation 24 hours a day, China News Service reports.

Originally scheduled to start operation in 2016, the bridge-tunnel project is due to open in May after a series of construction delays and budget over-runs.

The bureau said that as the main bridge is in mainland waters, vehicles will drive on the right-hand side, mainland style. The speed limit will be set at 100kmh.

Because of the complexities involved in getting vehicles to swap lanes, they will also drive on the right-hand along the 12km link road in Hong Kong territory.

However, it is not clear whether local traffic regulations and other laws will apply on that stretch, which runs parallel to Lantau’s north coast (Lantau News has sought a response from the Transport Department).

The bureau has also confirmed that 140 shuttle buses will be deployed to carry passengers across the bridge, initially every ten minutes and eventually every three to five minutes.

Twenty toll lanes have been set up to collect cash or non-cash payments in remminbi. It will accept electronic payments including ETC, MTC and Alipay.

Amy Yung demands answers on lack of consultation over council expansion

Islands District Councillor Amy Yung has called on council chairman Chow Yuk-tong and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau to explain why the council will not add another directly-elected member ahead of the 2019 poll.

The bureau announced in October that it would add at least one extra member to ten of Hong Kong’s 18 district councils because of a population increase. Eight councils, including the Islands, remain unchanged.

But Yung, one of the two pan-democratic members of the Islands council, says it’s inexplicable that the district, with its wide geographic spread and growing population, did not meet the benchmark.

The decision was based on the 2016 census result and population projections.

In a question tabled for today’s meeting, Yung has called on the bureau to explain why it did not consult directly with IDC members, but spoke only with the vice-chairmen.

She has also asked why Islands District Council chairman Chow Yuk-tong did not consult with IDC members. Instead Chow, who was appointed to his council post, spoke only with rural committee chairmen.

She said the decision on the number of DC board seats “may not have a significant impact” on the rural committees that Chow spoke with.

“But the impact on other democratically elected district board members and their constituents is far-reaching.”

Eric Kwok, the other pan-democrat on the council, representing Yat Tung South, agreed it was necessary to increase the number of elected seats.

He says Yat Tung Estate, with more than 46,000 residents, was big enough to have three seats.

“Another one is South Lantau, the biggest constituency area in Hong Kong, but has just one seat. For many years, we have requested to divide it into two seats – one including Mui Wo, Pui O and old Tung Chung village, the other from Cheung Sha to Tai O. ”

Tai Po crash inquiry to examine all Hong Kong bus services

An independent inquiry into the Tai Po bus crash will examine all Hong Kong bus operations, including Lantau services.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the inquiry after visiting accident victims last night.

She said the commission will be headed by a judge and would come up with recommendations to ensure the city’s public transport system is “reliable and safe.”

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said the inquiry would examine “the wider perspective, the whole question of safety, particularly in terms of passengers’ safety in relation to franchised buses and minbuses, etc., in order to prevent a similar accident from happening in the future.”

Nineteen people died and 65 were injured when a KMB bus overturned on a downhill stretch of Tai Po Road at 6pm last night. The driver has been arrested over dangerous driving offences.

It was Hong Kong’s worst accident since 2003.

It follows another in Sham Shui Po in October involving an E21A route Citybus on its way to Ho Man Tin from Tung Chung, in which three died and 29 were injured .

Hong Kong’s two union groupings have blamed the accident on working conditions at KMB.

RTHK reported this afternoon that the Motor Transport Workers General Union, an affiliate of the pro-Beijing FTU,

criticized the company, saying KMB drivers were not allowed enough rest. The union also said KMB’s poor pay is the reason it faces a shortage of drivers.

The independent HKCTU is taking a similar position, SCMP.com reported.

Wong Yu-loi of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions cited excessive hours, a shortage of qualified drivers and poor pay as long-standing problems.

Wong said he was angry and disappointed that officials had failed to review guidelines and policy following another fatal crash in Sham Shui Po last September, which killed three.

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung had pledged to review the guidelines at the time, calling for tighter conditions tied to overtime.

The unions have some backing from executive councillor Fanny Law, who has said the inquiry should review manpower and rostering issues at franchised bus companies.

KMB is the biggest of the city’s five franchised bus operators, with a fleet of 3,920 and carrying 2.71 million passengers a day in 2016.

New Lantao Bus is the smallest, with 121 vehicles and carrying an average 71,900 passengers per day.

On Lantau, North Lantau Highway is the worst accident blackspot, including one in November that injured 18.

South Lantau residents and police have expressed concern about buses speeding on the narrow roads. A bus and a car were involved in a collision near Pui O this morning.

The last fatality was two years ago, when a bus struck a pedestrian in Tung Chung.

(Photo: SCMP.com screenshot)

Man airlifted off Sunset Peak after plant sting

A man was airlifted off Sunset Peak yesterday after suffering an allergic reaction after being pricked by a plant.

The man and a friend were hiking from Pak Kung Au to Sunset Peak when he began to feel dizzy after being stung by an unidentified plant.

His friend raised the alarm after he passed out at around 3pm.

A Government Flying Service helicopter was despatched to the scene and carried the man to GFS headquarters.

The man regained consciousness and was taken to North Lantau Hospital by ambulance for treatment.

1200 subsidised Tung Chung flats to go on sale next month

The Housing Authority will begin selling 1226 new Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) apartments in Tung Chung from the end of March.

The Yu Tai Court apartments, still under construction, will cost on average below HK$7000 per square foot – a 30% discount to the market price, according to HK01.

By comparison, the average sale price of the last ten transactions at Coastal Skyline, Caribbean Coast and Seaview Crescent was HK$8323, figures from squarefoot.com.hk show.

Most of the Yu Tai Court flats are small, with saleable area ranging from 277 square feet to 571 square feet. About 1,000 are below 430 square feet.

The apartments, at the corner of Yu Tung and Chung Yan roads, opposite the North Lantau Hospital, won’t be ready until at least 2020.

They are part of a batch of 4,400 HOS apartments being offered for sale at the end of March.

(Photos) Best of the ‘Capture & Experience Tung Chung’ photo contest

The CEDD has announced the winners of its ‘Capture and Experience Tung Chung’, a photo competition, which attracted more than 500 entries.

Lantau News here showcases the major winners and some of the other outstanding entries.

The Grand Prize in the Landscape and Architecture section went to Winter Dusk in a Fishing Village (冬日漁村黃昏) by Law Yun Lung:

WINNER

The Grand Prize in the Culture and Living category was taken out by Small Fountain, Big Adventure (小水池、大冒險) by Choi Chi Ming:

winner culture 2

Here is a selection of the finalists and other highlights. For the full gallery, click here.

fiery

Finalist: 火燒天海之鏡 (Fiery Reflection of Heaven and Earth) – Tang Ka Wai

plane

Finalist: 歸航 (Homing) – Fung Siu

light

Winner, My Favourite Photo Award: 光 (Light) – Lau Jinling

chaoshui

潮水 (Tide)

BEAUTY

美景垂釣 (Scenic Fishing)

bridge

Bridge in the distances

TC Niaokan

鳥看 (Bird’s View)

tc new town

東涌新市鎮與傳統百年漁村共舞 (Tung Chung New Town and a traditional fishing village dance together)

HK-Macau bridge ready for trials

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is ready for testing ahead of its forecast opening date in May.

Officials from the three cities agreed at a meeting in Zhuhai on Tuesday to go ahead with joint trials on the 30-kilometre main bridge, HK01 reported.

Touted as the world’s longest sea bridge and including a 6.7-kilometre tunnel, it has been under construction across the Pearl River mouth since 2009.

The bridge was due to open in 2016, but has been delayed by a series of engineering problems and accidents. Ten workers have died on the Hong Kong segment of the project.

A lab technician has been jailed for eight months for falsifying test results on bridge concrete, while three contractors have been found guilty over a 2014 accident that killed one workers and injured four others.

The main bridge, originally expected to cost 15.7 billion yuan, is now costing 25 billion yuan, with Hong Kong footing the bill for a fifth of the cost overrun.

The other key elements of the HK$120 billion Hong Kong end of the project – an 11-kilometre viaduct and link road along the north Lantau coast, and the border crossing facilities on Chek Lap Kok – have also been completed.

However, the nine-kilometre tunnel and freeway link between Chek Lap Kok and Tuen Mun will not open until at least 2020.

Lam won’t condemn wetland dumping or amend law to stop it

Chief Executive Carrie Lam has refused to condemn wetland dumping and has ruled out any changes to the law to preserve Lantau and other threatened areas.

Lam admitted in Legco yesterday that there were “loopholes in the law”  but said that some “behaviour that looks like it is harming the ecology may not in fact be illegal.”

Lam’s comments, her first on the issue since protestors dumped waste on her doorstep on Sunday, were in response to a question from legislator Eddie Chu, who brandished a toilet seat found in a Pui O landfill.

Chu asked the CE if she would condemn those who “have exploited legal loopholes” to damage Coastal Protection Area land on South Lantau.

He also asked if she would amend the law to ensure its preservation.

Lam declined to answer, but acknowledged there was “room for improvement in monitoring and enforcement.”

She called for stronger public education “to protect our beautiful coastline and other rural areas.”

Lam’s responses fail to distinguish between fly-tipping, which is illegal, and landfilling, which has become government-authorised waste dumping in rural areas.

They also fly in the face of her own policy, which is to conserve South Lantau generally and Pui O wetland specifically.

In her October policy address Lam said Lantau would be conserved by the new Sustainable Lantau Office, based on the Sustainable Lantau Blueprint issued last June.

“Measures for conservation of Pui O wetland are being explored,” it states.

Yet when it comes to ensuring these “treasured” ecosystems can be preserved, Lam not only is unable to offer any “measures” – she cannot find fault with the steady destruction taking place.

It is clear the CE has no intention of taking on powerful rural interests to stop wetlands from disappearing under a mountain of construction waste.

Govt-backed rural broadband likely to roll out in 2019

Government-backed broadband services could be available to rural Hong Kong residents as early as the second half of next year.

The government expects to issue a tender for subsidised rural fibre deployment in the first half of 2019, Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau said today.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam promised the cash support for rural and remote broadband in her October policy address,

The announcement, a shift in policy from the government’s long-held non-interventionist approach, followed complaints from New Territories and Islands residents that with only one broadband provider the competition policy wasn’t working.

In a written response to Legco, Yau said subsidies would be provided “to fixed network operators to encourage the extension of fibre-based network to villages in remote areas.”

Industry regulator Ofca had begun work on the scheme, he said. It will report progress to Legco in May and will later seek funding approval from the Finance Committee.

Yau said tendering work will commence in the first half of 2019.

His response to Legco IT industry member Charles Mok was the first time any details of the scheme had been made public,

However, Yau did not say which villages would qualify for the scheme, how much it would cost, or whether the government would subsidise fibre rollout within remote villages as well as connecting to them.

But he did say he expected the additional fibre would boost mobile network capacity.

Upon completion of the project with fibre-based networks extended to villages in these remote areas, [mobile network operators] can make use of the fibre-based networks to install new base stations, thereby enhancing the mobile coverage and capacity in these areas.

Text message sets off overnight emergency search on Tung Chung Bay

A Tung Chung woman set off an emergency search early this morning when she sent a text message saying she wanted to jump into the bay.

A male friend received the text at about 2am and notified police.

A search was begun near the Tung Chung New Ferry Pier involving police, Marine Police, Maritime Rescue and a fireboat, but found no trace of her in the freezing waters.

Rescuers feared she may already have taken her life, HK01 reported.

However, at 4am they learnt the woman had not jumped into the sea and was safe on land.

The case was marked as “a dispute.”

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