Judge-led Inquiry Urged For Shoddy Railway Work

Legislator Tanya Chan said on Thursday that she has written to the Chief Executive Carrie Lam asking for a judge-led independent inquiry to look into corner-cutting works at the Shatin-Central Rail Link.

The MTR Corporation has admitted that some metal bars at the Hung Hom Station were cut short.

The Civic Party lawmaker's move came after the railway's chairman Frederick Ma urged the main contractor Leighton to give a full account on the matter to the public when he attended a radio show on Thursday morning.

Chan said this showed the corporation does not have enough power over its contractors and proves the need for a judge-led investigation.

"It is a judicial proceeding. At the same time this commission has wide power for example for arresting people, subpoena witnesses and giving them wide protection.

"So, with this protection, I believe this commission can gather more and fuller range of information that would help to deal with different aspects regarding this incident," she added.

But the lawmaker representing the engineering sector, Lo Wai-kwok, said it was too early to set up a separate probe when the MTR Corporation was still conducting its own investigation.

"Several parties are involved including the main contractor, sub-contractor and professionals working on the site three years ago on this particular part of the project," Lo said.

"MTR has already got permission from the government for another week to finish the investigation report. Therefore in the meantime we should really wait for that report and what the next step should be we have to decide then."