The government plans to build a food waste plant, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario told government-owned TV-cum-radio station TDM in an interview broadcast on Saturday.
Rosario noted in the interview conducted earlier last week that food waste accounted for some 40 percent of the rubbish delivered to the refuse incineration plant in Pac On.
According to the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC), Macau had 2,309 restaurants and similar businesses at the end of last year.
An informed source told The Macau Post Daily on Saturday that the plant earmarked to tackle the huge pile of leftover food from eateries and households would be built on newly reclaimed land and start operating within a few years. The source, who asked not to be named, also said that the plant would generate electricity, as the existing waste incineration plant that started operating in 1992 and, according to the source, is nearing its maximum capacity of about 1,700 tonnes a day. The Pac On plant uses six incinerators.
Meanwhile, Rosario also said that by the end of the year the government would issue a call for bids for a construction project to extend the waste incineration plant.
LRT western line
Concerning the troubled light rail transport (LRT) project, Rosario said that the government had not yet decided whether to build – or not to build – an LRT line in the western part of the peninsula. However, he admitted that possible project details of the western line would only be decided by the next government, whose 5-year term commences on December 20, 2019.
Rosario said that the peninsula’s eastern line would link Pac On in Taipa via the Zone A land reclamation area and Areia Preta neighbourhood with the Barrier Gate checkpoint. Rosario acknowledged that the feasibility study for the eastern line was only started one or two months ago so that there was still no decision on its exact routing.
4th bridge & tunnel
The policy secretary also said that the government would soon issue invitations to tender for the fourth Macau-Taipa bridge construction project, adding that the possible construction of a twin tunnel – one tunnel in each direction – between the peninsula and Taipa was still being evaluated by a feasibility study.
In the interview, Rosario also defended the government’s proposal to raise the minimum age for subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) flat applicants from 18 to 25. According to Rosario, those under 25 have priorities other than buying a flat such as “finding a girlfriend” or “landing a job”.
