A PRO-BEIJING study group has put forward a 10-billion yuan (HK$13.47 billion) proposal to privatise Shenzhen's Huangtian Airport and develop a rail link with Tsuen Wan as a contingency if the controversial Chek Lap Kok airport project is shelved. The plan, by the Study Group for Infrastructure Development, has already been submitted to the State Council's Hongkong and Macau Affairs Office, the local branch of the New China News Agency and the Shenzhen Municipal Government. It will be made public this month. Dr Victor Sit Fung-shuen, leader of the study group and a Hongkong deputy to the National People's Congress, said yesterday that the plan would be a cost-effective resolution to the airport controversy. The study group is made up of local engineers, geographers and professionals who have been questioning the Chek Lap Kok project. Beijing has yet to agree to Hongkong's plans for financing Chek Lap Kok and its associated infrastructure projects, originally estimated to cost $163.7 billion, and its 1997 target completion date is now in serious doubt. According to the new plan, Huangtian Airport would be expanded to handle more than 30 million passengers a year. Shenzhen mayor Mr Li Youwei said the Shenzhen Municipal Government had already planned to expand the second construction phase of the airport, which would include a second terminal for international flights and a second runway. ''The estimated cost for the second phase of construction is about US$400 million [HK$3.09 billion]. The capacity of Huangtian Airport will be upgraded to 40 million passengers each year after the completion of the second runway,'' Mr Li said. Dr Sit said the Shenzhen authorities had given an encouraging response to his group's plan and investment would not be a problem. ''The 10-billion yuan investment funds will be raised from Hongkong and the response from the business sector has been positive,'' Dr Sit said. ''Kai Tak Airport will not face saturation until 2005 if Huangtian Airport is expanded to share the traffic burden from 1994-95.'' The group has suggested that Beijing privatise Huangtian. It would be run by a management committee with most of its members coming from Hongkong. ''In view of the failure of the British side to implement the Memorandum of Understanding, our group has also called for shelving of the Chek Lap Kok airport project,'' he said. But Dr Sit stressed that his group did not suggest the replacement of the new airport by Huangtian, adding that the Special Administrative Region government should decide whether to build an airport after 1997.
