Addressing a Q& A session in the legislature’s hemicycle on Tuesday, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario said that the supply of sand from the mainland for the land reclamation project off the north-eastern coast of the peninsula would resume on Friday.
Rosario made the remarks on the last of a two-day Q&A session about his portfolio’s policy guide-lines for next year.
Rosario and several other senior officials of his portfolio attended Tuesday’s plenum in the Legislative Assembly’s hemicycle.
The government said in 2014 that it planned to build 28,000 public housing units on the land reclamation area, officially known as Zone A.
The land for Zone A started to be reclaimed in 2013 and was initially slated to be completed at the end of last year. However, the project has been delayed, partly due to the repeated suspension of the supply of sand from the mainland.
In February last year, the supply of sand to the project’s contractors was suspended until December.
However, Rosario said in late March this year that the supply of sand for the reclamation project had been suspended again at that time.
After the supply of sand was suspended in March, the Infrastructure Development Office (GDI) said that the government was in talks with the Guangdong provincial government to ensure a stable supply of sand for the Zone A reclamation project.
The office added that the Guangdong government proposed a new site to remove sand from the sea bed – an area south of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge project.
Since the reclamation project was not finished at the end of last year as initially planned, the government has yet to announce a date for when the project is now scheduled to be completed.
Speaking during Tuesday’s plenum, Rosario said that GDI Director Chau Vai Man went to Guangzhou on November 9 and signed a memorandum on the supply of sand to Macau for the Zone A reclamation project, adding that the supply of sand was now slated to be
resumed on Friday. Rosario also used the troubled supply of sand for the Zone A reclamation project as an example that “many things are beyond control of the [local] government”.
“In 2015,1 said that there would be a solution to the [long-standing] problem of repeated sand supply suspensions at the end of last year.
But eventually we have a solution at the end of 2016,” Rosario said.
“We had to wait a month for the sand to be delivered [to Macau], after [GDI Director] Chau Vai Man went to Guangzhou and signed the memorandum on November 9… I thought the sand would be delivered [to Macau] soon after that,” Rosario said.
The Secretary also said that road projects in 2’17 might worsen the city’s transportation issues. Raimundo do Rosario added that the Transport Bureau (DSAT) and several public service organisations will co-organize a press conference to announce further details on the topic.
Rosario also revealed that most of next year’s road projects will be under CEM control.
(Macau News / The Macau Post Daily / Macau Daily Times)
