Government urged to drop West Kowloon arts hub basement plan over spiralling HK$23b cost
Estimated cost up HK$13 billion in less than a year, and it might go higher
The government has been urged to consider whether the costly basement planned for the West Kowloon arts hub should be scrapped in view of soaring costs and likely delays. The call came as officials prepared to place before legislators today a paper showing the estimated cost of the basement and related works has soared from HK$10 billion to HK$23 billion in less than a year.
The cost could go higher: the government said the estimate did not take into account the effect of delays to the cross-border high-speed railway that terminates in the arts hub area, and detailed designs had yet to be done.
Critics - including arts groups and members of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority - questioned whether more taxpayers' money should be poured into construction while only HK$3.3 billion was allocated to arts and cultural development overall in this financial year.
"This will put the arts hub into a financial black hole," Mathias Woo, executive director of arts group Zuni Icosahedron, said.
A West Kowloon board member who declined to be named said that while the government would pay for the basement - part of the conceptual plan prepared by architects Foster + Partners - it had made the arts hub plan look "ridiculous".