MTR accused of lying on HKD97.1b railway project 

People board the Airport Express train, operated by MTR

The MTR Corporation has been accused of conducting illegal activities relating to the construction of platforms at Hung Hom station in Kowloon as part of the city’s most expensive railway project, the HKD97.1 billion Sha Tin-Central link.

The operator admitted late last week that it had become aware of five occasions where a subcontractor had the steel rebars cut short to appear properly installed, during the construction of the link, but failed to report its findings to authorities, as it was “not required.”

The staff made it seem as though the metal structures had been screwed correctly into couplers, inside one of the two underground levels being built beneath Hung Hom station to house four platforms for the new rail line. The rail operator admitted the negligent behavior last week, but refused to disclose the identities of those involved.

The company claimed that it first discovered the faults in December 2015, according to Hong Kong reports.

However, MTR’s projects director Philco Wong revised the date to August 2015 on Friday morning, arguing that it was in December 2015 that they in fact wrote to the contractor to rectify the fault, gathering criticism from lawmakers for failing to inform police authorities.

Lawmakers then slammed the company for deceiving the public and for failing to take action against the concerned parties.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Transport and Housing, Frank Chan, pledged that it would report relevant information to police authorities if any illegal activities were uncovered.

MTR Corporation recently signed a contract to provide operation and maintenance assistance services to the Taipa Line of the Macau Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system for a period of 80 months, in order to cope with operations in 2019, at a cost of MOP5.88 billion.

The scope of the services includes the testing and activation of systems prior to the start-up of the Taipa Line, the formation of operation teams and the development of pre- employment training.