Who wudda funk it? The estimated cost of the troubled Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link has gone up AGAIN – and not by a small amount.
According to Michael Tien, chairman of LegCo’s transport panel, the price of the cross-border railway could well shoot up an extra HKD18 billion, to bring the overall cost to HKD90 billion!
“What I can only say about the cost is that the over-budget is higher than the one I estimated earlier, which was about HKD20 billion. The management said it was unacceptable and returned it to the subordinates for discussion again … HKD90 billion might be the final cost,” Tien said, according to the Standard.
The estimated budget for the project, which is currently delayed by two years, was HKD65 billion in 2010, amended to HKD71.52 billion last year.
Clearly the toilet roll in the construction site portaloos has been replaced with gold leaf since then, but apparently it could get even worse.
Professional Commons Policy Committee convener Albert Lai Kwong-tak said the price may go up even further as contractors bill for lost time due to the delays.
The cost and the deadline are both still under review.
