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The Second Phase

The scope of the new policy announced by the Government in August 2012 covers the public walkways1 maintained by the Highways Department (HyD).  However, some walkways proposed by the public for lifts retrofitting are not public walkways and are therefore beyond the scope of the “Universal Accessibility” (UA) Programme.  After reviewing the circumstances, we propose to enhance the Programme so as to strike a balance between the principle of prudent use of public funds and responding to public aspirations.  In the 2016 Policy Address, the Government announced that starting from the fourth quarter of that year, we would invite the District Councils (DCs) to further nominate not more than three existing walkways in each district for the second phase of the UA Programme.  The walkways eligible for selection by the DCs are no longer confined to public walkways maintained by the HyD, provided that the following criteria are met and no land resumption would be involved to ensure the proper use of public funds:

  1. the walkways span across public roads maintained by the HyD;
  2. they are open for public access from public roads at all times;
  3. the walkways are not privately owned; and
  4. the parties responsible for the management and maintenance of these walkways agree to such lift retrofitting proposals and are willing to cooperate with the Government during the implementation of the said lift retrofitting works as well as the subsequent management and maintenance works of the lifts.

Following the announcement of the initiative to further expand the ambit of the UA Programme in the 2016 Policy Address, from December 2016 to September 2017, we again invited the 18 DCs to each further select not more than three existing walkways proposed by the public under the expanded ambit of the programme for implementation under the next phase of the UA Programme (referred to as the “Second Phase” of the UA Programme).

The 43 items under the Second Phase are being implemented smoothly. As at 31 December 2023, 16 items have been completed and 27 items under construction. Details of the latest progress are set out at here.

 

  • 1. Public walkways refer to public footbridges, elevated walkways and subways maintained by the Highways Department.