Estimated cost of Chinese opera centre more than doubles to HK$2.7b
Estimate more than doubles for the first venue due to be completed at West Kowloon arts hub
The estimated cost of building a Chinese opera centre at the West Kowloon arts hub has more than doubled from HK$1.3 billion to HK$2.7 billion in six years, says Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
The Xiqu Centre for operas, the first venue due to be completed, will take the shape of a lantern designed by architects Bing Thom of Vancouver and Hong Kong's Ronald Lu & Partners, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority announced.
Disclosure of a higher cost estimate signals that the authority is under financial pressure to complete its project.
One academic speculated that development costs could double for the complete arts complex, which received Legislative Council approval in 2007 for a HK$21.6 billion budget to build 17 venues.
In March, the South China Morning Post estimated the arts hub could cost an extra HK$16 billion, citing skyrocketing construction costs, after a university don calculated that the government had underestimated costs.
A source close to the authority later said it had arrived at a higher figure, of about HK$20 billion, in an internal calculation.