HKT slapped with warning after four service centres found in breach of land leases
Telephone exchanges being used as service centres in Mong Kok, Yuen Long, Lai Chi Kok and Tsuen Wan have been in violation of the rules for up to eight years
Four HKT service centres have been in violation of land leases for as long as eight years, the Lands Department confirmed on Thursday, after slapping Hong Kong’s largest telecommunications company with warning letters.
The news came a month after the Task Force on Land Supply recommended the government explore whether old telecoms stations in relatively prime locations had the potential for residential development.
Responding to media queries, a Lands Department spokeswoman said that the use of HKT telephone exchanges in Mongkok Exchange Building, Yuen Long Exchange, Lai Chi Kok Exchange and Tsuen Wan Exchange for customer centres breached lease conditions.
The department has issued warning letters to the owners of three, in Mong Kok, Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long, the spokeswoman said Thursday.
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The department added that it had received a request from the owner of HKT’s Yuen Long Exchange in early February to use the area under the telephone exchange as a customer service centre and the site is now being handled according to established procedures. If the application is approved, the applicant is required to pay the relevant fees and would trace back to the date that it started breaching the lease, it said.