POOR performance by contractors awarded a water works project in Yuen Long has led to more than a year of delay and partly accounted for $46 million in extra costs.
Officials told legislators yesterday that the project, the first stage of water treatment and transfer facilities at Au Tau, had been delayed for 567 days because two of the three contractors failed to complete work on time.
The total cost on completion of the project last year was $478.2 million, almost triple the $166 million estimated in 1987 when work began.
Legislators in the Public Works Sub-Committee of the Finance Committee were told yesterday that poor performance by the two contractors, the service reservoir contractor and the treatment works civil works contractors, had resulted in a delay of 452 days.
According to the Government, the primary service reservoir contractor failed to complete the works on schedule.
This resulted in a delay of 327 days in handing over the site to the treatment works civil works contractor to start the second stage.