HK 'should pay more for bridge'
Hong Kong should pay a larger share for the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge, a mainland official has said.
Zhu Yongling, director of the office co-ordinating the project, was quoted by Guangzhou Daily as saying the group would decide on final financing for the bridge at its eighth meeting, to be held this month.
He also said the three sides would 'proportionately share' the cost as agreed in earlier discussions, adding that Hong Kong should pay a larger share because it would benefit most from the bridge, whose major works have been estimated to cost 30 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan.
With the key problem of financing resolved this month, the tendering process is expected to start soon after.
The director also said the vehicle quota for the bridge would be gradually loosened in accordance with the capacity of customs and roads, the newspaper reported yesterday.
Only 50,000 vehicles are licensed to cross the Hong Kong-mainland and Macau-mainland borders.
Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung, who came up with the bridge idea, has said Beijing was considering letting non-licensed vehicles use the bridge, with car parks at each border control point where drivers could switch to locally licensed vehicles. Sir Gordon is Hopewell Holdings' chairman and a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference delegate.
A spokesman for the Transport and Housing Bureau said representatives from the three governments would discuss the project soon, but declined to disclose further details.
Wong Kwok-kin, a local deputy to the National People's Congress, said Hong Kong should review benefits of the proposed bridge before agreeing on how much to pay. 'After so many years of delay, the importance of the bridge has already been reduced since its initial planning.'
The Y-shaped, 36km bridge has been in the pipeline for two decades.
Another deputy, Priscilla Lau Pui-king, said cost allocation would not be a big problem for the three governments if private enterprise was a major source of finance.
