MTR Corp chops down 340 trees at Diamond Hill station site
But two outstanding Chinese banyans were transplanted and 120 other trees saved after MTR scrapped plans for a depot at the station
The MTR Corporation chopped down 340 trees while extending Diamond Hill station as part of its Sha Tin to Central link project, while 22, including two Chinese banyans, were transplanted to a site nearby.
Richard Kwan Kin-yan, the MTR's environment manager, said the operation required careful planning to ensure there were no delays to construction.
Kwan said the original plan was to build a depot on the site, but this would have resulted in the loss of all the trees. So the company changed its mind to minimise the impact, and as a result 120 trees were saved.
He said the shape and condition of the two banyans, between 20 and 40 years old, were so outstanding that its engineers believed they must be protected before construction could start.
Engineers spent more than a year planning the transplants, some of the biggest in the Sha Tin to Central project. As the banyans were up to 16 metres tall and 20 metres wide, their roots branched out up to 10 metres.
"Workers used shovels rather than machines in digging the earth while looking for the root systems," Kwan said, adding that if the roots were not preserved as much as possible, it could affect their health after the transplant.