Cross-border railway will help Hong Kong in long-term, transport chief says, after drop in projected returns
Minister defends project as a fourth legal challenge is mounted claiming joint checkpoint in the city breaches the Basic Law
Hong Kong’s transport chief has defended the fall in projected economic returns of the cross-border railway project, which is facing its fourth court challenge.
Critics of the express train line say an arrangement to give mainland China jurisdiction over part of the station at West Kowloon is unconstitutional.
Minister Frank Chan Fan urged the public to consider the long-term benefits when viewing the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.
“The economic value of a large-scale cross-border infrastructure project should not be gauged by today’s estimates but the situation 10, 20 or even 30 years later,” he said.
He was responding to media reports on Thursday that the government had scaled down the economic internal rate of return, calculated based on the cost of the railway, from 6 per cent to 4 per cent.