The Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulation 2017 (Commencement) Notice 2018 was gazetted today (October 22).
The Secretary for Transport and Housing (STH) has appointed October 24, 2018 as the day on which section 3(3), in so far as it relates to the new paragraph 1(i)(xxvi) of the Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulation 2017, comes into operation. In other words, the commencement date for the permitted operating area of the New Territories (NT) taxis which involves the Southern Connection of the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link (TM-CLKL), i.e. Shun Long Road, is October 24, 2018, so as to tie in with the commissioning of the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF) of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB).
A government spokesman said, "The works of the Mainline of Shun Long Road (i.e. the section connecting North Lantau Highway (urban bound)) have been completed. All three types of taxis (i.e. urban, NT and Lantau taxis) would then be able to travel to and from the HKBCF of the HZMB via the Mainline of Shun Long Road to provide services to passengers."
In view of the HZMB project, the STH made the Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) (Amendment) Regulation 2017 under section 6 of the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap 374) and gazetted it on April 18, 2017 to amend Schedule 7 to the Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) Regulation (Cap 374E) to revise the permitted operating areas, including that of the NT taxis, to facilitate the travelling of passengers between the operating areas of the NT taxis and the HKBCF upon the commissioning of the HZMB.
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