HUNDREDS of replicas of Chungking Mansions, housing tens of thousands of local residents, are contravening fire and safety regulations and will be forced to close after strict Government legislation comes into effect next month.
A top official warned yesterday that guesthouses in the notorious Chungking Mansions would be the first on the Government's hit list come September 1, and predicted 80 per cent of them would have to close.
Patrick Macoun, the senior building surveyor overseeing the new legislation which gives owners of tourist guesthouses and hotels until September 1 to instal required safety precautions, said Chungking Mansions would ''bite the bullet''.
He said if owners were successfully prosecuted for contravening the new fire and safety regulations, the Government would go on to tackle all local guesthouses forcing the local residents out on to the streets with travelling backpackers.
Following a fire in Kwun Tong on August 5 which left three people dead and one man injured, Mr Macoun said it was time something was done about the guesthouses.
''People have died in guesthouses and people will continue to die unless something is done,'' Mr Macoun said.