Hundreds of households living near the mainland border area may receive total compensation of more than HK$200 million over the construction of a new cross-border checkpoint - if lawmakers approve the payout.
An estimated 344 households are covered under the Development Bureau's proposal to grant special ex-gratia allowances to villagers displaced by the facility, which will link Heung Yuen Wai in Ta Kwu Ling with Liantang in Shenzhen.
The bureau will seek funding approval of HK$211 million from Legco's finance committee next month, in an attempt to end villagers' opposition to the project, work on which is due to be completed in 2018.
Each eligible household would get a cash allowance of HK$600,000 and a relocation allowance of HK$3,000 to HK$12,000, the bureau proposed in a paper submitted to the Legco development panel yesterday.
The cash allowance has been increased, as villagers were unsatisfied with the original proposal to pay HK$250,000, with which they said it would be difficult to buy land elsewhere and build a house.
The construction of the checkpoint and its connecting road will affect residents of the century-old Chuk Yuen village and some squatters nearby. Indigenous and non-indigenous villagers have lived in the area for at least 30 years.
The bureau pledged last year to reserve land half a kilometre away from Chuk Yuen to allow indigenous villagers to apply to build standard three-storey small houses.