The Hong Kong high-speed rail project may be scrapped after the region's Legislative Council failed on Saturday, Feb. 27, to allocate an extra HK$19.6 billion ($2.5 billion) for the rail link to Guangzhou, the Global Times reported.
Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, president and chief executive of Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and Hong Kong's Secretary for Transport and Housing, said that the legislative council is set to meet on Monday, Feb. 29, to assess the situation and determine if the project will be temporarily suspended, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The report said that the HK$65 billion allocated to the rail link, which was approved by the Hong Kong government in 2010, will have been spent by June 2016, with 70 percent of the project having been completed. To proceed with construction, the MTR is required to inform the contractor three months in advance if more funds will be available.
According to the report, the construction of the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link began in April 2010, and was expected to be completed in Aug. 2015.
The MTR announced in April 2014 that due to bad weather, construction will be delayed until 2016. But in Nov. 2015, it pushed back the construction further to 2018, the report added.
China News Service (CNS) reported earlier this month that an opposition solon scuttled deliberations on an additional HK$19.6 billion for the project.
According to Cheung, a suspension in construction or the contract's termination will add more to the cost of the project. He said that if the construction is terminated, it may take two to three years to invite bids and restart, which would mean an additional HK$28.2 billion.
CNS reported in January that some Hong Kong members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Guangdong Provincial Committee believed that the region's economy would suffer from a delay in the project's completion.
Hong Kong media have criticized the opposition's repeated delay tactics, which they said would have a negative effect on the project and the economy.