Highly competitive pricing and tight schedules can force construction contractors to compromise quality and safety, according to industry sources.
Price cutting emerged after the 10 core airport projects were completed, as there were only two big projects available for contractors, they said.
One of the projects is the Mass Transit Railway's Tseung Kwan O extension, and the other is Kowloon-Canton Railway's West Rail plan.
'Aside from these two projects, other projects are not so big, so bidding for most construction projects has been at very competitive prices and in some cases, the bids have been lower than actual construction costs,' the sources said.
Some contractors wanted the jobs in order to sustain their businesses.
'Such actions could force contractors to compromise on safety and quality of the projects, if supervision is not strict enough,' the sources said.
The recent scandals about public housing construction revealed what could happen if unrealistic pricing and tight time-tables were adopted, they said.