Transport officials want to spend a whopping HK$610 million to build additional floors on the Central ferry piers to enhance the shopping and dining experience in the heart of the city.
The plan is for the new facilities to have fabulous green features, including air-con with carbon dioxide sensors to control the fresh air supply. Believe me, visitors and workers there will really need those sensors. Why? Because the piers are berths to some of the world's most polluting ferries.
Frankly, our bureaucrats have got to be kidding. Perhaps they should pay a visit to the site besides looking at spreadsheets.
As well as the glory of our harbour, the lasting impression visitors take away from the piers is the choking exhaust fumes of the vessels operated by New World First Ferry and Hong Kong and Kowloon Ferry.
And this is a tourist attraction our bureaucrats want to showcase to the world?
Operators like New World think they are performing a noble public service, with their executives never tiring of telling us how economically unviable the business really is.