Hong Kong To Build First Terminal Handling Pearl River Delta Cargo

Hong Kong is to build its first terminal designed to handle Pearl River Delta cargo, the Hong Kong government said. According to a statement issued by the Information Services Department, the river trade terminal will be part of the territory's massive new port project which will provide up to 24 new container berths by 2011. Plans call for the terminal to be built at Tuen Mun in the New Territories, to the west of the busy Ma Wan Channel and northwest of the proposed new container port on Lantau Island, the biggest outlying island in Hong Kong.

It will be built and operated by private enterprise with the first phase projected for completion by late 1997. Rapid growth in river trade between Hong Kong and China is projected by the Port Development Board. It said 20.7 million tons of freight carried by river last year will double by 2001 and quadruple by 2011.