The letter headlined, 'Residents have a number of airport options', from Nelson Chan, for Commissioner for Transport (South China Morning Post, September 2), gave a number of suggestions for South Lantau residents to get to the airport by public transport rather than private vehicles.
While this has been the subject of many letters to these columns, this is only part of the issue. There are much bigger issues at stake, including safety and the development of South Lantau as a whole.
Firstly, the Transport Department has decided not to build a completely new Tung Chung Highway, which would affect 10 hectares of country park and be very costly.
Instead, it will build another road from Tai Ho Wan on the northside of Lantau through to Mui Wo, which will infringe upon a significant area of country park, proposed country park and ecologically and scenically valuable areas which will undoubtedly change South Lantau forever.
The planning intention has always been to retain South Lantau for conservation and recreation. If a major new highway is built this makes a mockery of this so-called commitment and the Government should come clean on what the exact plans are for South Lantau.
The independent South Lantau Transport Study Group (SLTSG), maintains that insufficient research has been done on improving the existing Tung Chung Road without the need to build a completely new highway. The road could be widened to a two-lane carriageway on the north side below the country park and have more passing bays on the steeper south side with limited widening at key areas to significantly increase road capacity and ease the flow of traffic.
Putting in traffic lights at the top of the steep hill could also help traffic management.
