Hong Kong legislators on Thursday said they have had a firmer grasp of the Northern Metropolis’ overall blueprint and latest execution details while expressing confidence and expectations for its future progress.

They made the remarks after they toured the Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen New Development Area — one of the earliest to undergo development in the mega-township project.

The Legislative Council Secretariat on Wednesday released a report titled “Northern Metropolis: Accelerating development through industry-driven momentum”. The report captures legislators’ thoughts and proposals on a broad range of issues, including the enactment of dedicated legislation, the arrival of supporting industries, the planned innovation and technology ecosystem, the university town, transport infrastructure, and the region’s development-conservation balance.

A delegation of 46 LegCo members, accompanied by senior government officials, started the inspection tour on the rooftop of a high-rise in Tin Shui Wai, where they surveyed the Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen New Development Area and were briefed on its planning framework. The group then toured the land earmarked for the university town within the area before concluding the visit at a community liaison center set up to familiarize the public with the Northern Metropolis’s vision as a 30,000-hectare mega-township near the border with the Chinese mainland.

Within the new township, the Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen area is positioned as a high-end professional and logistics hub anchored by industrial land, a university town and a cross-border railway interchange.

Speaking to reporters after the visit, Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said the visit was the first in a series of site tours planned for lawmakers to track the Northern Metropolis’ progress.

Linn said the Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen New Development Area is expected to deliver 250 hectares of “cultivated land” — an area that has been planned, cleared and leveled, ready for immediate development — in the next five years. Of that, 100 hectares will be designated for industrial use, she said.

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Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin, who also joined the tour, said the university-town project she and the lawmakers visited was on track to complete land leveling by year-end. “The progress on site is going very well,” she said.

A 9-hectare site in Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen will form the first tranche of land for the Northern Metropolis University Town, with site formation works due to be completed within this year. The broader university town precinct is expected to span 100 hectares across the Northern Metropolis.

Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan, also at the event, said that the national 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) had specifically called for expediting the preparatory work on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Rail Link, a planned 18.1-kilometer cross-boundary railway.

Transportation infrastructure will act as “both a support and a catalyst” for the Northern Metropolis’ development, she said, adding that surveying and design work has begun on the railway’s Hong Kong section, from Hung Shui Kiu to Shenzhen’s Qianhai. Chan said that a tender for detailed design is targeted for next year, and the line is expected to open in 2035.

Also present was acting Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Clement Woo Kin-man, who said that the 15th Five-Year Plan provides a blueprint and action agenda for the country’s national and the city’s local development alike. “The special administrative region government was taking proactive steps to align with it,” as Hong Kong’s first five-year plan is taking shape through joint work with the Legislative Council to study the city’s development priorities, including the Northern Metropolis’s development, he said.

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The SAR government on Tuesday launched a two-month public consultation on dedicated legislation for the Northern Metropolis, alongside consultations with LegCo’s related panel, with the aim of presenting the bill for its first reading by midyear.

LegCo President Starry Lee Wai-king said the visit has given lawmakers a firmer grasp of Northern Metropolis developments, including its blueprint and execution details.

Lee said lawmakers had seen firsthand that its development had entered a critical phase of substantive construction and accelerated development. “We will work closely with the authorities to achieve ‘faster construction and industry-led development,’ ” she said.

She added that legislators will draw on the firsthand information gathered during the tour to continue engaging the government on follow-up proposals, ensuring that policy formulation — including the drafting of Hong Kong’s first five-year plan — is better calibrated to supports the city’s long-term development.

Lawmaker Yiu Ming, who represents the New Territories North constituency, which covers a substantial part of the mega-township, said he was grateful for the tour, which provided him with a “multidimensional perspective” on the area’s development outlook.

He said that discussions during the visit had covered how future public transportation routes would be laid out, and that dedicated legislation to facilitate the use of innovative construction technologies could accelerate progress, possibly enabling planned public transport infrastructure to be delivered ahead of schedule.

Lawmaker Alex Fan Hoi-kit said he paid special attention to the latest developments regarding the Northern Metropolis university town, which he said “would significantly advance Hong Kong’s ambition to become an international education hub”.

“After today’s tour, I am full of confidence and high expectations for the development of the Northern Metropolis,” he said.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com