This picture taken in Hong Kong on June 23, 2022 shows an aerial view of residential buildings in the Tin Shui Wai district in the New Territories. (ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)
New Prospect for Hong Kong, a political group founded by mostly mainland-born Hong Kong residents, called on Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to announce a plan in his first Policy Address for developing Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis.
The Northern Metropolis development plan was proposed by then-chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her final Policy Address in October 2021. Lam presented the proposal as a means to alleviate the city’s chronic housing shortage and foster a new tech hub.
Lee’s first Policy Address will be on Oct 19.
With over 100,000 new residential units proposed for the Northern Metropolis, the New Territories North West Geographical Constituency would add hundreds of thousands of residents, said lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu of the New Territories North Constituency.
The political group also urged the special administrative region government to set up an official body to take charge of formulating top-level industry policies for the Northern Metropolis development
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Zhang, who also is a member of the New Prospect group, added that the capacity of the Tuen Ma Line connecting New Territories North West to Kowloon is now close to full capacity, and “it is urgent to build a new railway line to alleviate the capacity problem”.
He proposed that MTR’s planned Northern Link be extended southward from the Kam Sheung Road station to the one in Kowloon Tong.
Such an extension would not only accelerate the development of the Northern Metropolis by facilitating the mobility of people but also help tackle the traffic problems besetting residents in northeast Kwai Chung, Zhang said.
The political group also urged the special administrative region government to set up an official body to take charge of formulating top-level industry policies for the Northern Metropolis development and clarifying the industrial positioning and division of labor of each part of the area.
READ MORE: Survey: Northern Metropolis development welcomed by public
