A cable car carrying 2,000 tourists an hour from the new airport to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island could get off the ground within four years, it was announced yesterday.
The five-kilometre link - with gondolas leaving every minute from Tung Chung - would rise 450 metres and offer passengers a birds' eye view of jets landing at Chek Lap Kok and views across the harbour and the island's mountain range.
Financial Secretary Donald Tsang outlined how the scheme was being pushed ahead in response to the financial crisis to help boost the ailing tourism industry.
The $1 billion project would create 1,000 jobs but could not contribute to the tourist industry until it was completed in 2002, said the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC), which is conducting a feasibility study.
'It would be a major tourist attraction and useful for transit passengers who would otherwise just be sitting in airport lounges,' said Hong Kong Tourist Association spokesman Peter Randall, adding it was first proposed in 1995.
The MTRC said the project would make it easier to get to the statue, the world's biggest outdoor bronze Buddha, from Hong Kong - by catching the airport train, transferring to a cable car and arriving at Ngong Ping.