The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday unanimously passed a government-initiated bill enabling the Light Rail Transit (LRT) East Line to be extended to the Qingmao pedestrian border checkpoint by running under the Barrier Gate.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon introduced the outline of the bill during a plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday.
After yesterday’s passage of its outline, the bill will be passed to one of the legislature’s standing committees for an article-by-article review, after which it will be resubmitted to another plenary session for its second and final debate and article-by-article vote.
The ongoing LRT East Line project, which got off the ground in October last year, is a 7.7-kilometre-long section connecting the Barrier Gate checkpoint at the peninsula’s northern tip and the Taipa Ferry Terminal via the Zone A and Zone E1 land reclamation areas. The East Line will cross the sea between Zone A and Zone E1 through an undersea tunnel.
On December 29 last year, the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee in Beijing passed a decision to authorise the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) to exercise jurisdiction over a land and maritime area southeast of Zhuhai’s Gongbei checkpoint, enabling the Macau government to lease the area from Zhuhai so that the LRT East Line can be extended to the Qingmao checkpoint.
Cheong noted yesterday that with the aim of getting the NPC Standing Committee’s decision off the ground, the local government has drafted the bill that will enable it to formally administer the area in compliance with the MSAR’s laws.
According to the NPC Standing Committee’s decision, the area’s leasehold will expire on December 19, 2049, i.e., 50 years after the establishment of the MSAR.
After the leasehold takes effect, the LRT station to serve the Barrier Gate checkpoint, i.e., the ES1 station of the ongoing LRT East Line project, can be expanded so that it will be closer to the Barrier Gate checkpoint, making it a shorter walking distance for LRT passengers between the station and the checkpoint.
This handout photo downloaded from the Public Works Bureau’s (DSOP) website yesterday shows the peninsula’s north-eastern coast near the Barrier Gate last month where the LRT East Line project is being carried out.
