**********************************
The Frontier Closed Area (Amendment) Order 2011 will come into effect on February 15, 2012, to specify the reduced Frontier Closed Area (FCA) of the "Mai Po to Lok Ma Chau Control Point Section" and the "Lin Ma Hang to Sha Tau Kok Section".
"The Security Bureau announced in January 2008 that the coverage of the FCA would be substantially reduced from about 2,800 hectares to about 400 hectares. In order to implement the reduced coverage of the FCA while maintaining the integrity of the boundary, we need to construct a secondary boundary fence along the boundary patrol road," a Security Bureau spokesperson said today (November 30).
The construction works have been divided into four sections, namely the "Mai Po to Lok Ma Chau Control Point Section", the "Lok Ma Chau Control Point to Ng Tung River Section", the "Ng Tung River to Lin Ma Hang Section" and the "Lin Ma Hang to Sha Tau Kok Section".
"The construction works for the 'Mai Po to Lok Ma Chau Control Point Section' and the 'Lin Ma Hang to Sha Tau Kok Section' have been completed. We will specify the reduced FCA by the Frontier Closed Area (Amendment) Order 2011, which will take effect on February 15, 2012. This will, in effect, excise more than 740 hectares of land from the FCA for public access, thus meeting the aspirations of the local community," the spokesperson said.
As regards the remaining two sections, the construction works for the "Lok Ma Chau Control Point to Ng Tung River Section" are expected to complete by the fourth quarter of 2012. The Government aims to further reduce the FCA by introducing another amendment to the Frontier Closed Area Order in early 2013.
As for the "Ng Tung River to Lin Ma Hang Section", the Government will seek funding approval for the construction works from the Public Works Subcommittee and the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, and aims to complete the construction works by the first quarter of 2015.
To provide statutory planning control for the development and conservation of the land to be released from the FCA, the Planning Department has prepared five Development Permission Area (DPA) Plans on the basis of the Recommended Development Plan under the "Study on Land Use Planning for the Closed Area".
These five DPA Plans were gazetted on July 30, 2010, and the Town Planning Board is now considering the representations submitted in respect of the DPA Plans in accordance with the provisions of the Town Planning Ordinance (Cap. 131).
Ends/Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Issued at HKT 15:08
NNNN
