The Hong Kong Legislative Council on Friday approved an initial funding requested to kick-start a feasibility study for Lantau Tomorrow Vision, a massive land reclamation scheme aimed at creating the city’s next housing and business hub.
The contentious bill was passed in the absence of the opposition camp, whose members resigned en masse last month after four of their colleagues were summarily booted from the legislature over their political stance.
But the HK$550 million (US$71 million) in funding for the study is only the first step in a long process that could take more than a decade to deliver any tangible results. Here’s a look at the history of the project, the controversies surrounding it and whether it can – as its proponents maintain – solve the city’s housing woes once and for all.
What is Lantau Tomorrow Vision?
A signature policy of city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the HK$624 billion grand plan aims to build 1,000 hectares of artificial islands – equivalent to one-fifth of urban Kowloon – in the waters east of Lantau Island and west of Hong Kong Island, where the city’s current central business district is.
It could provide up to 260,000 public and private flats, with the first batch of residents able to move in by 2034.