A long-planned deep channel for giant ships may go ahead outside city waters
A Shenzhen port's expansion has been blocked by Hong Kong's environmental protection chiefs - who have rejected dredging in the city's waters to deepen a navigation channel for large container vessels that would use the port.
The central government recently approved the $7 billion first phase of the Dachan Bay terminal in Shekou, a joint venture between the Wharf Group's Modern Terminals and the Shenzhen municipal government. The project can still proceed, but lengthening the channel to avoid Hong Kong waters will add to its cost.
Director of Environmental Protection Keith Kwok Ka-keung rejected the findings of an environmental impact assessment for the Tonggu Channel dredging, commissioned by the port authorities.
The project, formally proposed by Shenzhen port authorities more than two years ago but which dates to the early 1990s, involves dredging a 20km channel from the mouth of Shenzhen Bay to waters southwest of Lantau.
The channel would be 200 metres wide and 16 metres deep. A 2.7km section would have been within Hong Kong waters near the Lung Kwu Chau Marine Park.
Shenzhen's goal in dredging the channel is to expand its port capacity by eliminating the bottlenecks created by the shallowness of the existing navigation channel - which cannot handle the latest generation of giant cargo vessels.