bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Emily Tsang

The government plans to build an eight-storey columbarium in Tuen Mun costing HK$2.8 billion and with room for 160,000 burial urns.
The three-hectare site in Tsang Tsui is one of 24 potential sites earmarked by officials since 2010 to tackle a severe shortage of burial places across the city.
But Tuen Mun district councillor Josephine Chan Shu-ying said that while she agreed with the site selection, she felt the isolated area would not be able to handle the volume of traffic.
She suggested a larger parking area be established along with a regular bus route.
In a government document submitted to lawmakers on Thursday, the plan includes a new access road and a pedestrian link to Nim Wan Road.
"The site is rather isolated," Chan said. "With the number of niches it will hold, the site is expected to be visited by many people during tomb-sweeping festivals. I am worried it will not be able to cope with the traffic."
She said the district council had presented its views to the Food and Health Bureau for consideration.
In the document, the government said it noted the traffic concerns raised by the district council and had suggested increasing public transport during peak tomb-sweeping seasons and implementing crowd control.
It also proposed building a Garden of Remembrance - a memorial garden where relatives can scatter the ashes of loved ones - next to the columbarium building,
Construction work will start in the first quarter of 2016. The building is expected to open by the end of 2018 and the garden the following year, the paper said.
The proposal is the latest district-based development scheme designed to meet the severe shortage of public and private columbarium space.
The chronic undersupply has in recent years fuelled a trade of turning temples and industrial and commercial buildings into unauthorised columbariums. The government hopes to build columbariums at all 24 potential sites in 18 districts, boosting the supply of niches by several hundred thousand by 2031.


Green light for eight-storey HK$2.8 billion columbarium in Tuen Mun

An artist's impression of the eight-storey columbarium in Tsang Tsui, Tuen Mun. Graphic: HK Distric Council

An artist's impression of the exterior view of the columbarium. Graphic: HK Distric Council

News

Hong Kong

Education