Following is the transcript of remarks of a media session by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, after visiting Ho Man Tin Station of the Kwun Tong Line Extension today (August 6):

Reporter: What are some of the difficulties and challenges faced at the South Island Line? And does this mean that the completion date will be pushed back once again? And also, how would, what will the Government do to better control the traffic among all the harbour tunnels after taking back the Eastern Harbour Tunnel?

Secretary for Transport and Housing: The first question first. As I said, on the part of both the MTR Corporation and the Government, we are still working on the target of having the South Island Line (East) to be commissioned by the end of this year. But over the last few months, we have been keeping the Legislative Council Railway Subcommittee (Subcommittee on Matters Relating to Railways) fully informed of the challenges being faced by the MTR Corporation in taking this Line forward. There are two major challenges, first (is) the remaining works for the expansion of the Admiralty Station. This is a challenging project because we are talking about the carrying out of works alongside, around and within the station that is fully functional. And it’s a very busy interchange station. So we have to make sure that the construction work would not affect the daily operation of the Admiralty Station. So that is part of big challenge.

     The other thing has to do with the statutory inspections required under the law which has to do with safety installation within the stations along the future South Island Line (East), and also fire prevention requirements, safety requirements, and we have to make sure that all these requirements are done in full compliance with the statutory standards. So, again this is another challenge. But we hope that we are able to make it for the end of the year but of course we have to mention these challenges that the Corporation is facing.

     The second question about the rationalisation of cross-harbour tunnel traffic. As from tomorrow onwards, the Government will have in its hands two cross-harbour tunnels, namely the current Hung Hom Cross Harbour Tunnel and also the Eastern Harbour Tunnel (Eastern Harbour Crossing). I have made a commitment to the Legislative Council (LegCo) that the Government will immediately, after the take-over of the Eastern Harbour Tunnel (Eastern Harbour Crossing), start a study on how to rationalise traffic flow of the three cross-harbour tunnels, including the Western Harbour Tunnel (Western Harbour Crossing). And the work will be completed, the study will be completed within the 2017-18 session of the LegCo. And we will present the findings to the LegCo together with some ideas about how to go about the rationalisation. Of course, even if the Government has come up with some views, we still need to gain the support of various stakeholders as well as the LegCo, because whatever changes to be made including changes to the toll levels, will have to be approved by the LegCo. We’ll make sure the work to be done professionally and we are taking this work very seriously because we are very keen to improve cross harbour tunnel traffic by way of such rationalisation measures.

Reporter: Is there any factors that the Government is considering and what’s the idea…

Secretary for Transport and Housing: I cannot tell you at this point what we will propose, but ultimately if we take reference to previous studies, ultimately a major measure will have to do with adjustment of toll levels, to use sort of economic lever to shape, to influence drivers' decision as to whether they should drive across the tunnel, which tunnel they should use, in order to come up with a result that will see a more balanced use of the three tunnels.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, August 6, 2016
Issued at HKT 17:58

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