Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
The Highways Department today (September 12) held a signing ceremony for the Collaboration Charter of the Hong Kong Railway Standards to demonstrate the firm commitment of the Government and various sectors to jointly formulating and updating the Hong Kong Railway Standards. The ceremony was officiated by the Director of Highways, Mr Tony Yau. Mainland and overseas railway experts, representatives from relevant government departments (namely the Buildings Department (BD), the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD), Drainage Services Department (DSD), the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), the Fire Services Department (FSD), the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) and the Transport Department (TD)), the Building Technology Research Institute, as well as the MTR Corporation Limited joined as signatories.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Yau remarked, “This Collaboration Charter has established a solid foundation for cross-sector collaboration. Through the formulation and updating of the Hong Kong Railway Standards, it would lead Hong Kong’s railway construction to create a new milestone.” He said that the nation’s railway standards not only attain international benchmarks, but also take a leading position internationally in various aspects. The formulation and updating of the Hong Kong Railway Standards would actively draw reference to world-class railway specifications including those of the nation, and extensively absorb the best practices of the Mainland and overseas. By introducing the Mainland’s design standards, building materials, equipment and construction specifications, a firm basis will be established for utilising the Mainland’s construction methods, technologies and resources in railway construction. This would not only help to promote introduction of the Mainland’s innovative machinery and building technologies by the local construction industry, but also enhance efficiency, shorten the construction period and reduce costs.
He added that Hong Kong’s standards have long aligned with international standards, and envisioned that the new Hong Kong Railway Standards would not only become the “Greater Bay Area Standards”, but also aim to become one of the new “World Standards”.
The standards will first be applicable to the ongoing Northern Link project and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Rail Link (Hung Shui Kiu-Qianhai) project, and will be progressively adopted in other railway projects.
The three commitments of the Charter are:
1. support the formulation and launch of the new Hong Kong Railway Standards for application to railway projects;
2. drive the continuous enhancement and application of the Hong Kong Railway Standards; and
3. leverage the Hong Kong Railway Standards as a key pillar for pursuing excellence in building railway projects.
To support the above objectives and streamline processing, the HyD would be authorised by the BD under the Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123) to handle the approval process for new railway projects by setting up a dedicated team. The HyD is also actively collaborating with relevant government departments, including the BD, the CEDD, the DSD, the EMSD, the FSD, the HKPF and the TD, to introduce a digitalised approval platform for materialising the handling of the submission, review and approve of documents in a fully digital centralised manner, with a view to streamlining the current approval processing time by half, while significantly enhancing the efficiency of implementing new railway projects under strict assurance of safety and quality.