I would like to respond to Elisabeth Tacey's report headlined 'West Rail work sparks fears for precious relics' (South China Morning Post, September 23).
We fully understand that there are worries that West Rail may affect some of the relics.
The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) is fully alive to the need to protect Hong Kong's heritage. We take this opportunity, therefore, to reaffirm that the KCRC will take every possible measure to fulfil this commitment.
As part of the Detailed Feasibility Study for the West Rail proposal, the KCRC conducted a Preliminary Environmental Investigation (PEI) to identify key environmental concerns and issues, including all known sites of historical and cultural importance. The PEI findings showed that no structures or buildings of historical interest would be directly affected by the construction or operation of West Rail.
The PEI was only an initial study and by no means exhaustive. We will shortly follow up with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which will investigate in detail the potential impacts on sites of archaeological and historical importance along the alignment and determine measures to mitigate any possible impacts.
The KCRC welcomed the meeting with the Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) on September 17 and the opportunity it provided for explaining to its members what we have done and what we propose to do to protect historical and archaeological sites along the railway route.
