'Don't Blame Fang Sheung' For MTR Fiasco: Tien

The chairman of the Legislative Council's railways subcommittee, Michael Tien, has said he believes that a subcontractor named Fang Sheung Construction was not to blame for a building works scandal at Hung Hom Station.

That's contrary to what's been suggested by the MTR, who said it was most likely workers from Fang Sheung who had cut short steel bars for some platform work for the Shatin-to-Central Link.

Quoting sources, Mr Tien said Fang Sheung had notified the main contractor, Leighton, that the steel bars could not be properly screwed into couplers on the platform.

He said “someone else" had promised they would fix it.

Tien said it would take very powerful hydraulic cutters do perform such work, which Fang Sheung employees would not have access to.

An MTR boss on Thursday had singled out Fang Sheung as being the likely culprit behind the building works scandal and safety scare at Hung Hom.

The railway operator's projects director, Philco Wong, said on an RTHK programme that workers from the firm were suspected of cutting short the steel bars to hide the fact that they weren't fitted correctly.

Wong said MTR site managers had noticed suspicious practices at the station.

"When they got there, they saw some workers from Fang Sheung working. Of course, they did not see them actually cutting the steel bars. But they saw the bits that were already cut off placed to one side. And at the time, there were only Fang Sheung workers there. So according to their understanding, it was them who did it."

Wong said it appeared to the MTR staff that the bars were cut simply for convenience and the workers were immediately asked to replace them.

But the same problem was uncovered on four other occasions, the corporation conceded.