Contractors ‘not cooperating’ with MTR on delayed high-speed rail link to mainland China

Some contractors working on the delayed and overbudget high-speed railway link to Guangzhou are not cooperating with the MTR Corporation, an executive of the rail giant said yesterday.

MTR projects director Philco Wong Nai-keung was speaking at a meeting of the Legislative Council's railway subcommittee when officials from the company and government were grilled about the multibillion-dollar project. The opening of the project, originally scheduled for this year, has been pushed back to the end of 2017.

Wong said because of the two-year delay, contractors had to adjust construction methods and this would incur additional costs. They had to conform to adjusted designs and other MTR-required changes.

"There is a mechanism in the contract to determine both sides' responsibilities. But most of the time was spent arguing," he said. "The MTR is doing its best to ask contractors to prioritise the progress and at the same time settle disputes. But, of course, some are cooperating and some are not."

Wong was responding to engineering sector legislator Lo Wai-kwok, who asked if disputes over contractors' claims had undermined coordination between MTR Corp and contractors. There were 664 unresolved claims at the end of March, amounting to HK$14.6 billion.

Undersecretary for Transport Yau Shing-mu said speculation the final cost would reach HK$90 billion was "counterproductive" to efforts to better control the budget with contractors. The corporation will submit a report to the government before the end of June with cost estimates and a target completion date.