Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) Director Li Canfeng said yesterday that he expected the long-delayed demolition of the ill-fated Sin Fong Garden residential high-rise to get off the ground “in the next few days”.
Li made the remarks while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s press conference about a public consultation on the drafting of a bill on the government’s temporary housing plan. The press conference took place on the premises of the government’s Policy Research Office (GEP) in Taipa.
Li reaffirmed that his bureau has already approved the demolition and the reconstruction plans for Sin Fong Garden so that “technically” its reconstruction can finally start.
Li was quick to add that as Sin Fong Garden is a high-rise, its demolition will be a “rather difficult” job for Macau, based on its construction work capability. Li said that his bureau has, therefore, been “looking for the best possible technical plan” for the demolition to go ahead.
Li also said that the process of evidence collection resulting from a lawsuit by the government against the companies that constructed the building has almost been completed, adding that he expected the process to finish shortly. He said that the demolition of the high-rise could then go ahead.
The building in Rua da Ribeira do Patane has been mothballed since late 2012 after several of its main pillars burst, forcing the government to evacuate all its residents. The government has since declared that the building is “uninhabitable” and the evacuees were confronted with the issue of raising enough money to cover the reconstruction costs. The 30-storey building, which still stands, has 144 flats.
In April 2013, the government published a report by the University of Hong Kong, which concluded that several main pillars on the second floor burst due to “poor construction material”.
Since having been evacuated from the building, Sin Fong flat owners have resorted to a string of activities to defend their rights such as protests and petitions urging the government to assist them in finding the “real” reasons that caused the pillars to burst and for a solution to their housing problem.
In April 2014, the Macau Jiangmen Communal Society first announced that it would advance 60 percent of the building’s reconstruction cost – equivalent to about 100 million patacas, while businessman-cumphilanthropist Vu Shun Him (also known as Antonio Ferreira) said at that time that he would advance 50 million patacas to help rebuild the high-rise. The society estimated at that time that the cost of the reconstruction would be about 170 million patacas.
Jiangmen is a city in the west bank of the Pearl River Delta some 60 kilometres north of Macau. Thousands of local residents are immigrants from Jiangmen.
In late 2015, 100 percent of the condominium owners agreed that the building, the construction of which was completed in 1994, should be rebuilt. They also suggested that the non-profit Macau Social Enterprise Co. Ltd. submit a reconstruction plan to the Lands, Public Works, and Transport Bureau.
However, the reconstruction still could not commence due to the then ongoing lawsuit between the government and the building companies allegedly responsible for using poor building materials in the 1990s that ultimately caused the incident.
The government said in late 2016 that it still needed to file complaints against a number of building companies so as to recover compensation (for the government’s expenditure on tackling the incident and assisting the condominium owners), and that the Public Prosecution Office (MP) would have to finish collecting evidence from the building, before the reconstruction could finally start.
In February this year, the Macau Jiangmen Communal Society hosted a signing ceremony for an agreement according to which it will advance 100 million patacas for the reconstruction of Sin Fong Garden. The society said at that time that the reconstruction cost was now estimated at about 210 million patacas.
Following the 100 million pataca advance payment by the society and the 50 million pataca advance payment by Vu, the condominium owners will have to cover the remainder. They will also need to repay both advance payments.
This photo taken yesterday shows the ill-fated Sin Fong Garden residential high-rise in Rua da Ribeira do Patane. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) Director Li Canfeng speaks to reporters on the premises of the government’s Policy Research Office (GEP) in Taipa yesterday. Photo: Tony Wong
