New delay likely on reclamation

THE Government is set to extend the tender validity date on the Central-Wan Chai reclamation project for another month, from April 6, due to the impasse on finance talks for Chek Lap Kok and its associated railway.

With no sign of the airport talks resuming, contractors bidding for the Central and Wan Chai reclamation plan, which is to house the airport railway Central terminus, have been told to work out several options on delaying the project to May, June and July.

But there was no guarantee from the Government that the project could even be started by July. Beyond that date, reclamation work would not be completed by mid-1997 as scheduled, a contractor said.

Although the lack of a financial agreement was holding up the project, the contractor said he had not been told to drop the six-hectare site for the terminus, and allow the rest of the reclamation plan to go ahead for business use.

Despite the contractor's willingness to extend the contract for the 21-hectare site, as requested by the Government previously, he said his consortium had yet to decide whether to accept the offer for another extension.

A vice-director of the local branch of the New China News Agency, Mr Zhang Junsheng, yesterday blamed the British Hongkong Government for the project's delay, in not adhering to agreements set out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the new airport.

He attacked the Government for its ''unenthusiastic attitude'' on settling the matter, by not proposing a new financial arrangement in accordance with the MOU.

''If the Government had followed the MOU in carrying out the project, there would have been no trouble in the airport construction. Therefore, the British Hongkong Government should bear all the responsibility for the dragging on of the airport problem,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Airport Consultative Committee (ACC) turned down a request from members for a meeting, to ask government officials for more information on Mr Richard Allen's sudden departure as chief executive of the Provisional Airport Authority (PAA).

In a written reply to members, Mr Wong Po-yan said the Legislative Council's ad hoc group on airport finance had already met on the same subject in March, and had followed it up with two written replies.

As the Government had made it clear it would not release any information on relationships between employer and employee to the legislature, Mr Wong concluded it was not necessary to hold any ACC meetings.

Mr Wong, also chairman of the ACC's Finance Committee, called off a regular meeting on Tuesday to avoid discussion on the subject, on the grounds that there were no agenda items.

ACC member Mr Leung Kwong-cheong, who had requested a full ACC meeting, said he would not pursue the matter further and hoped the legislature could press the Government for an answer.

Legislator Mr Albert Chan Wai-yip said he had already requested the convenor of the ad hoc group on airport finance, Mr Stephen Cheong Kam-chuen, to hold a meeting to decide on inviting the Financial Secretary, Mr Hamish Macleod, to give further details on Mr Allen's departure.

He said the Government could not evade the subject, as it was prepared to seek further funding from the legislature to run the PAA.

Mr Cheong said he would seek members' views on the need to hold another meeting on Mr Allen's departure, before making a decision. But he said he did not object to the idea of inviting Mr Macleod to attend a meeting.

Noting that the subject was not urgent, Mr Cheong said another meeting would only be held after the Easter holiday.