The Hong Kong government will “redouble its efforts” to ensure public housing projects will not be affected over delisting of a construction company linked to several industrial accidents from approved general building contractors, the city’s leader said on Tuesday.
John Lee Ka-chiu made the remarks after the application of Aggressive Construction Company’s registration renewal was rejected after it was found to be involved in three fatal construction accidents between 2020 and 2023 with responsible persons having been prosecuted. The company will removed from the list on June 20.
“It is very important to properly handle the projects undertaken by this company, including three public housing projects and a government complex,,” the CE told reporters ahead of the Executive Council meeting.
Lee also pointed out that various government departments were actively handling the follow-up work to ensure that the new contractor can take over the project smoothly and the impact on the progress of the project is minimized.
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Any delay in construction projects may bring challenges, he said, adding that he had urged various departments, particularly the Housing Authority, to redouble efforts in this front.
Emphasizing that the company involved “does not have the competence to ensure work safety”, Lee reiterated that the Buildings Department made the right decision, showing the government’s stance on construction safety.
MTR’s service suspension
Asked about the five-hour-long service suspension on the MTR Corp’s Tseung Kwan O line last Thursday, the CE described it as “a very serious incident” which, together with two other incidents this year, had exposed the railway operator’s inadequacies of emergency response and contingency planning despite the presence of a penalty mechanism.
"The MTR is a major transportation system in Hong Kong. It serves over 5 million passengers every day, so any disruption is going to cause inconvenience of a different scale," he pointed out.
Highlighting the government’s four directions, Lee stressed that the MTR must review the entire railway network system comprehensively and systematicall to improve maintenance standards and establish a regular risk-monitoring and assessment system.
The MTR also needed to strengthen its emergency response and contingency handling capabilities in training, including information dissemination, dedicated emergency response teams, and regular drills and stress tests, he said, adding that improving alternative transport arrangements during service suspensions was necessary with better information dissemination.
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“The Transport and Logistics Bureau and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department will exercise leadership and guidance, particularly in the MTR's implementation of its five-year plan for facilitating the upgrade, maintenance and technology applications, and system and personnel enhancements,” the CE said.
The bureau had already urged the railway operator at a LegCo meeting on Monday to submit a full investigation report with remedial action within a month, he added.
