Hong Kong transport authorities withdraw HK$7.16 billion funding request for Trunk Road T4 day before Legco debate
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Transport authorities in Hong Kong abruptly withdrew a HK$7.16 billion (US$915 million) funding request for a proposed trunk road in Sha Tin a day before it was to be discussed in the legislature on Friday, citing a need to provide lawmakers with more information.
Legislators raised concerns over the significant rise in construction costs and the lack of a concrete timetable for the project. Authorities reportedly expected more votes against the proposal or abstentions at the Legislative Council’s Finance Committee meeting than it initially thought.
“The Transport and Logistics Bureau will further enrich the discussion documents by delaying the proposal discussion, in addition to the information we have provided earlier upon the request of the public works subcommittee, to facilitate the Finance Committee’s deliberation on the relevant project,” a bureau spokesman said.
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The bureau had sought funding to build Trunk Road T4, which will directly connect Sha Tin with Ma On Shan, Tsuen Wan and Kowloon East to relieve congestion inside Sha Tin district. The latest cost estimate was more than six times the original one of HK$1.1 billion made back in 2006.
The performance of lawmakers also came under the spotlight in 2023 after a report found at least two-thirds of bills were passed in the previous year with under half of all legislators present, falling short of the 45-member quorum requirement.
The project involves the construction of two dual-lane trunk roads, spanning 2.3km (1.4 miles), widening existing roads and building elevated foot and cycling paths.
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In a letter sent to the Finance Committee chairman on Thursday, the government said it would defer the proposal for later discussion as it needed to further “enrich” the documents used for lawmakers’ deliberations.
Committee member Michael Tien Puk-sun said he understood that there were “quite a few” people who would abstain or vote against the government’s proposal. He added that he hoped the incident would show authorities that they should not expect to pass laws easily after the overhaul of Legco.
“This is the first time that we all worked together to tell the government that we will not always be a rubber stamp since the ‘patriots rule Hong Kong’ overhaul by Beijing,” he said.
“The issue here is that if a certain number of people do not cooperate with them and act as a rubber stamp, they are already losing face.”
He noted that some lawmakers had concerns over the price of the project, while he himself had issues with the lack of a completion time frame and comprehensive plan to solve traffic issues in Sha Tin.
Lawmaker Stanley Li Sai-wing, a Sha Tin district councillor, said the jump in the project’s estimated cost was “shocking”, adding that the government should spend wisely under its current budget deficit.
Professor Lau Siu-kai, a consultant at semi-official Beijing think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said it was a healthy sign if the government retracted its funding request fearing it could not get the Finance Committee’s support.
“This shows that on non-political problems, the Legislative Council can exercise its function to supervise and balance the power of government,” he said.
“It is not like the situation in the past with the opposition where they would go against the government just for the sake of opposition.”
He said the situation surrounding the trunk road plan was normal, as lawmakers were likely to have seen genuine issues with the proposal, which was not a serious item that Beijing would have a fixed position on.
The government also withdrew a funding application in May 2021, involving the redevelopment of Wa Ying College in Ho Man Tin that was expected to cost HK$470 million. But the withdrawal was made after failing to get enough support from lawmakers on the public works subcommittee, which was needed before it reached the Finance Committee.
At the time, some lawmakers expressed concerns about the political stance of the school’s management, with others noting they had questions over the project’s hefty price tag.
