Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On said on Wednesday that the government was planning for the city’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) system to be connected to the mainland at four locations in the long term.
Chui made the remarks when answering appointed lawmaker-cum-civil engineer Wu Chou Kit’s question during a Q&A plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle.
The session took place a day after Chui delivered his 2018 Policy Address.
The government has said that the Taipa segment of the LRT is scheduled to be operational in 2019. The Taipa section, which also covers Cotai, is 9.3 kilometres long and will have 11 stations.
The government has also said that it expects the total cost of the LRT Taipa section to be about MOP11 billion. It is still not known when construction of the LRT Macau section will begin.
According to the Macau Post Daily, the government has previously said that it will start construction of the section connecting Taipa to Seac Pai Van in Coloane, as well as the section connecting Taipa to Barra – via Sai Van Bridge – on the south-western tip of the peninsula, after the Taipa section comes into service.
Last year, Niu Jing, director of the Hengqin New Area Management Committee, told the media that the Hengqin government had reached an agreement with the Macau government that Macau’s LRT will be extended to Hengqin Island in Zhuhai. Niu said at that time that the two governments were working on a feasibility plan for the LRT spur line to Hengqin.
During Wednesday’s plenum in the legislature’s hemicycle, Chui said that for the long-term plan of the connection between Macau’s LRT and the mainland’s railway network, the local government and the mainland authorities were considering four locations in Macau, namely Barra to Wanzai in Zhuhai; the Lotus Flower Bridge border checkpoint in Cotai to Hengqin; a site on the man-made island for the Macau and Zhuhai landing points of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge; and at the planned Macau-Zhuhai border checkpoint in Ilha Verde.
Meanwhile, Chui also said that the government expected to submit to the legislature in the middle of next year a bill regulating the future operation of the LRT system.
The government early this year launched a two-month public consultation on proposed legislation on the future operation of the LRT system.
