With the government's proposal to build a third runway at Chek Lap Kok Airport shaping up to be the city's most expensive project ever, eyebrows have understandably been raised at its jaw-dropping HK$136 billion price tag. It has also aroused a lot of public commotion and controversy as the proposed project will require reclamation of 650 hectares of land to the north of the existing airport island. The proposed reclamation works would amount to half the present size of the airport and would be the second-largest such reclamation project ever undertaken in the city.

The airport extension has also stoked fears of endangering the idyllic habitat of the rare Chinese white dolphins which are found around northern Lantau Island, let alone other environmental concerns such as the tremendous air and noise pollution that is already caused to the area.

The Airport Authority has put its master plan for 2030 on the table as the capacity at the Hong Kong International Airport will reach saturation point by 2020. Apart from building the third runway, a cheaper option would be to upgrade and expand the existing two runways, costing HK$42.5 billion. However, this will only be deemed as a halfway solution to the problem as it could only cope with the growing demand some time before 2020. Meanwhile the third-runway option will enable the airport to handle air traffic demand beyond 2030 with handling capacity of over 600,000 flights a year.

In addition, according to the Airport Authority, the city will reap benefits worth eight times its cost at more than HK$900 billion over the next 50 years. Without it, customers will look to other airports for air traffic. It therefore runs the risk of losing millions of air passengers, tons of cargo volume and aircraft movements, not to mention the tens of thousands of jobs that would have created by 2030. Hong Kong may also stand to lose its competitive edge as the aviation hub of Asia.

Needless to say, we do not have many other choices left apart from the third-runway option, which seems to be the only one worth our consideration. As usual, it has not taken long for the critics and skeptics to jump up quickly and point their fingers at the government as they condemn the project as a costly waste of money. Environmental crusaders have also rolled up their sleeves ready to snatch what they consider to be a disquieting proposal away and dump it into a rubbish bin.

However, the building of the third runway is not only a matter about cost-effectiveness, economic returns and coping with air traffic demand, but is also crucial to the city's long-term competitiveness that has been under a growing threat from other Asian cities. In fact, airports in our neighboring cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Seoul have been aggressively expanding their aviation footprint with each planning to expand their runways from three to five.

If we wait until the airport runs into a capacity bottleneck before making up our mind, it would definitely be too late for us to mend our ways. Other neighboring cities which have been watching us closely will quickly catch up and threaten to overtake our leading position. The longer it takes to build the third runway, the costlier the project will become taking into account the soaring prices of construction materials worldwide.

The aviation industry is not only about the provision of air traffic, but also acts as the groundwork to provide a driving force for the development of the city's four pillar industries, the lifeblood of our economy. To go along with globalization, we need effective links that connect us to the rest of the world, not just the mainland, to retain our high-flying aviation business. It is essential to have a third runway to maintain the city's status.

Those who cast doubt on the cost-effectiveness of the third runway should bear in mind the success of the current Chap Lap Kok airport outlined in the "Rose Garden Project" advocated by the colonial government during the 1980s. At that time the public doubted whether the mega infrastructure project was value for money but it eventually proved that it has given Hong Kong the necessary hardware to scale new economic heights.

To acquire the smooth running of the third runway, the government has to take to heart the lessons drawn from the judicial review of the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge in respect of its environmental impact assessment. What standards does the government have to adopt when making an assessment to effectively withstand any legal challenge? This mega project cannot afford to be dragged down endlessly because of a legal tussle.

The author is a current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 06/16/2011 page3)