The government is planning to build lifts connecting Coloane’s sprawling Seac Pai Van public housing estate and Coloane Hill.
Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) officials made the remarks yesterday during a meeting with members of the Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council.
The monthly meeting was held at the Community Integrated Building in the Seac Pai Van neighbourhood.
Briefing reporters after yesterday’s closed-door meeting, a member of the government-appointed council, Ng Hong Kei, quoted the IAM officials as saying that the project aims to make it more convenient for residents living in the sprawling public housing estate, which is at the bottom of Coloane Hill, and hikers to reach the hill.
The government plans to build the lifts near the estate’s public bus terminal, which is located next to the Seac Pai Van Community Integrated Building, according to Ng.
According to local media reports, around 30,000 people (around 4 percent of Macau’s population) live in the Seac Pai Van public housing estate, which consists of about two dozen blocks comprising subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) flats and social rental housing units.
IAM officials first told lawmakers in late 2019 that the bureau was planning the project, which was originally expected to be completed in 2021.
IAM officials said during yesterday’s meeting with the Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council that they still did not have a timetable as to when the project could get off the ground.
Also briefing reporters after yesterday’s meeting, a deputy convenor of the council, Lam Ka Chun, said that a number of councillors asked the IAM officials whether it would be possible to build cable cars connecting the Seac Pai Van public housing estate and Hac Sa over Coloane Hill. Lam quoted the IAM officials as saying that they would study the feasibility.
According to Ng and Lam, the lifts connecting the public housing estate and Coloane Hill would be built similar to the lifts connecting the viewing platform on Big Taipa Hill and near the Taipa Houses-Museum complex.
Ng and Lam quoted the IAM officials as saying that the planned project would include inclined lifts, lifts of the conventional type, i.e., ones travelling vertically, and a viewing platform.
“The project will make good use of the hill resources there and make it more convenient for people to reach hiking trails on Coloane Hill,” Ng said.
Public buses are parked in an area of the Seac Pai Van neighbourhood yesterday where the government is planning to build lifts going up to Coloane Hill. – Photo courtesy of TDM
