Hong Kong deputy transport minister stays mum on express rail link joint checkpoint

Hong Kong's deputy transport minister remained non-committal yesterday on the establishment of a joint immigration checkpoint at the West Kowloon terminus of the trouble-plagued Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail link.

The question of whether and how mainland immigration officers could be deployed at the station within Hong Kong jurisdiction surfaced in 2008.

The Basic Law stipulates that national laws, with a few exceptions, shall not be applied in the special administrative region.

Yesterday, lawmakers pressed the undersecretary for transport and housing Yau Shing-mu for an answer at the Legislative Council's subcommittee on railway matters, which is looking into the progress of the HK$71.52 billion project that has suffered delays and cost overruns.

"Do you have a deadline as to when a decision will be made? If a joint immigration checkpoint is proven infeasible, will you give up the design of the terminus?" asked Gary Fan Kwok-wai of the NeoDemocrats.

But Yau only replied that he "hoped" it could be done before the target 2017 completion date.