AKIPRESS.COM - Hong Kong plans to build one of the world’s largest artificial islands, city officials have announced, The Guardian reports.
The government’s HK$624bn (£60bn) proposal to reclaim 1,000ha of land around the territory’s largest island, Lantau, has been touted as a solution to the pressing housing shortage in the city, which is notorious as one of the least affordable markets on the planet.
Authorities said they hope to start work on reclaiming land in 2025, aiming for residents to move to the island in 2032.
The artificial island – the city’s most expensive infrastructure project to date – would be four times the cost of building Hong Kong international airport, which opened on Lantau in 1998, and far outstrip Dubai’s famous palm-tree shaped Palm Jumeirah, which reportedly cost US$12bn to build.
The island would be nearly three times the size of New York’s Central Park and provide up to 260,000 flats, more than 70% of which would be used for public housing, the government has said.