The government investigation into Monday's Ngong Ping 360 cable car accident would take two to three months to complete, Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Eva Cheng said yesterday.

Cheng told the Legislative Council economic services panel special meeting yesterday that an expert panel, chaired by Switzerland ropeway expert Gabor Oplatka, with the participation of Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) and an Austrian expert Professor Josef Nejez was formed to investigate the causes of the incident, and review the management, design, operation and maintenance of the cable car system.

Cheng told the panel that Oplatka had already arrived in Hong Kong to help the investigation.

The EMSD had earlier said the investigation would take at least one month.

"It will take time to complete a thorough investigation to identify the causes and suggest remedial measures," Cheng said.

Despite Monday's incident and various glitches since the opening of the Lantau Island tourist spot, the cable car owner Mass Transit Railway Corporation was satisfied with the operator's performance.

The MTRC project director, Russell Black said the corporation had not issued any warning letter to Skyrail-ITM.

"I think everybody should be aware that the design and installation of the cable way of course is not the responsibility of Skyrail-ITM. Their responsibilities are confined mainly to operation and maintenance. So each individual incident of the cable way requires individual assessment as to the cause and whether remedial measures should be taken and whether there is responsibility to various parties," he said

"We are happy with Skyrail-ITM performance. We have had constantly continued improving reliability of the performance of the cable way. The reliability is very high. We have been meeting our business targets," he added.

Black also refused to disclose whether the 20-year agreement between the corporation and the operator could be terminated if Skyrail-ITM did not perform up to standard.

The chairman of Skyrail-ITM, Ken Chapman told reporters after the meeting that he had no intention to step down.

"It is not reasonable to punish until the result of the investigation has found out what the real causes are," he said.

The senior officials of the cable car operator, Skyrail-ITM, drew flak from the legislators in the meeting yesterday for poor management, which the lawmakers thought led to the crash of an empty cabin on Monday night.

The legislators had called for a revamp of the operators' management. Democratic Party legislator Andrew Cheng said public confidence with the cable car system would not be restored under the existing management.

"Keeping the existing management will only do harm to the situation," he said.

Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong legislator Chan Kam-lam said the achievement of reliability rate of 98.8 percent did not mean poor management should be tolerated.

Legislators were also concerned that the evidence of the incident had been destroyed as engineers and staff had moved the cabin car wreckage after the incident.

EMSD director Ho Kwong-wai, however, said that the wreckage had been moved to the Siu Ho Wan depot, but computer records were kept and EMSD had taken the pictures to preserve the evidence.

Meanwhile, Commissioner for Tourism Au King-chi said a meeting between the cable car operator, tourism officials and the shops in Ngong Ping market would be held to discuss measures to restore confidence among the visitors.

Hong Kong Tourism Board Chairman James Tien urged the cable car management to explain the causes for the accident without delay.

"We simply cannot promote the cable car if the cause of the accident is not explained," he said.

"We will negotiate with the management on compensating losses borne by Tourism Board in promoting the cable car."

"For example, they should cover cost of printing new leaflets or give offers to tourists on Tourism Board's promotion plans."

(HK Edition 06/16/2007 page6)