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Go public with project data

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TO set the record straight regarding your April 18 article headlined, 'Lantau Port land sought', the Advisory Council on the Environment (ACE) endorsed container terminals (CT) 10 and 11 subject to eight conditions.

If these conditions are not met or are rejected by Exco, then ACE withdraws its approval. This is far from the blanket endorsement that your paper implied. CTs 10 and 11 form the base for a further three container terminals by the year 2011.

In total, the Lantau Port Project will require nearly three times the amount of marine fill as Chek Lap Kok. ACE's main conditions require that it is consulted on the marine borrow areas used to gather reclamation fill.

In addition, ACE requests that the Government set up an independent monitoring and audit office to investigate cumulative construction impacts, provide off-site compensation projects and extend the North Lantau Country Park.

Like most people, I would like to see economic development. But the North Lantau Port project centres on the question of whether funnelling 250 per cent more cargo a year through tiny Hong Kong by the year 2011, much of it driven by diesel-powered container trucks, will provide the highest economic return on our limited land and financial resources.

Unfortunately, there is too little information to make an informed decision. For example, the Transport Department's Freight Transport Study (1994) estimates that the amount of freight moved by container trucks will increase from nine million tonnes to 48 million tonnes by the year 2011, a 564 per cent increase.

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