MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese):

President, the HZMB Hong Kong Port will provide no less than 650 parking spaces for non-cross-boundary, local private cars. Apart from private cars, many non-cross-boundary coaches will pick up and drop off passengers at the Hong Kong Port after the commissioning of HZMB. During peak hours, a large number of coaches will wait for their passengers at the border control point. May I ask the Secretary whether the authorities will, in addition to providing parking spaces for private cars, consider providing sufficient parking spaces for coaches to meet the needs? If so, please provide the approximate number of parking spaces for coaches?

SECRETARY FOR TRANSPORT AND HOUSING (in Cantonese):

President, I thank Mr YIU for the question. As I said earlier, since the number of private cars using HZMB will be limited, I hope we can increase our visitor flow by means of public transport. Apart from controlling the number of franchised buses and green minibuses as I mentioned earlier, we will also control the number of non-franchised coaches at the Hong Kong Port to ensure smooth traffic flow. TD will make arrangements such that after the applications of non-franchised coaches have been approved, they can pick up passengers directly at the public transport interchange. The number of times for alighting passengers will not be regulated. We will also set up an online application system to facilitate coach operators to submit their applications. We will assign about 300 time slots per day for non-franchised coaches to pick up passengers. I believe the arrangements can meet the needs of the volume of coaches during peak hours.