New Department 'won't Solve Rail Project Woes'

A high-profile engineer has warned that the government's plan to set up a new railways department to oversee future development projects will not solve the problems that have dogged major projects in recent years.

Transport Secretary Frank Chan announced plans for the new department on Tuesday after a commission of inquiry into shoddy work on the Hung Hom MTR station recommended taking responsibility for rail away from the Highways Department.

The administration said it was "studying the roles, responsibilities, staffing and structure of the new department in depth, with a view to enhancing the government's ability in monitoring and controlling the planning and delivery of new railway projects".

But Albert Lai, a veteran engineer and founder of the Professional Commons group, said the new department would not in itself resolve the MTR's problems.

"There are a lot of issues relating to, for example, MTR Corporation's own management system and MTRC's own governance structure because it's a kind of hybrid structure," Lai said.

"It's actually majority owned by the government, so the government has a role there; it's not entirely independent from the government. So these issues cannot really be resolved by the commission's recommendations.

"I'm afraid that, especially because the government relies so heavily on one company, the MTRC, to look after all its railway projects, that over-reliance will still continue even though a new department will be set up to oversee MTR's work'."

The commission's final report on the Hung Hom station saga said the MTR Corporation and its main contractor, Leighton, demonstrated "serious deficiencies" including poor craftsmanship, bad management and lax oversight.

The report criticised the Highways Department for failing to find the defects and repeatedly failing to take firm action to ensure that the MTR corrected the problems when they were uncovered. However it ruled that the station extension was safe for use.

The station forms part of the Sha Tin to Central Link, a HK$90 billion project that is due for completion in 2022.

The government said it would adopt the commission's recommendations as it moved forward with a series of new railway projects first but forward in 2014.