Work to start on slum area

A SIX-PHASE project to demolish buildings in Kowloon Walled City begins next Tuesday after four months of preparation and surveying, according to the contractor.

The $40 million demolition is expected to be finished in 12 months.

Buildings facing the Carpenter Road park will be the first to go. Work will then progress in stages further into the mass slum.

Express Builders said it hoped to minimise disturbance to residents in Tung Tau and Mei Tung estates, opposite the Walled City.

A huge excavator has been shipped from the United States and is being set up at the site.

The Director of Civil Engineering, Dr Edward Brand, is expected to operate the 100-tonne excavator to break the wall of a building during a ceremony next Tuesday.