Lawful and necessary: The Government has ensured that the Central Reclamation III meets the High Court's requirements, and it is the only alternative to help ease heavy traffic in the area.

The Central Reclamation III project has met in all respects tests laid down by the High Court, and there is no reasonable justification to delay the project, Secretary for Housing, Planning & Lands Michael Suen says.

Mr Suen said the Government has ensured the project meets the three requirements needed to carry out the works, namely:

* compelling, overriding and present need;

* no viable alternative; and,

* minimum impairment to the harbour.

Therefore, the reclamation works currently underway are lawful.

He said the project is urgent to relieve heavy traffic in the area, and said the amount of reclamation has been scaled down to a minimum.

The original proposal was to reclaim 32 hectares of land. After extensive public consultations, the area of reclamation has been scaled back to 18 hectares, for the proposed road works.

The Housing, Planning & Lands Bureau said there is general consensus in the community that the road projects are essential and urgently required. The Society for Protection of the Harbour itself also shares this view.

The bureau also notes that suspension of the project now will cause serious disruption to the engineering works resulting in delays in the delivery of the road projects.

The Government is likely to be accused of breaching the works contract and be liable to very substantial penalty payments as a result.

Mr Suen said: "We have not actually made a decision to withdraw. It really depends on the terms of the withdrawal if we have to do that. It amounts to about a million dollars per day."

Therefore, it is in the public interest to continue with the works.

The Director of Territory Development, in consultation with consultants, and the Transport and Highways Departments, is reviewing the project.