Orchard Road building owners baulk at underground links
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A recent effort by the Government to prod Orchard Road building owners into constructing 12 underground linkways there has been met with scepticism.
The owners are reluctant to take up the offer of bigger grants and bonus retail space because they say such linkways, being in the public domain, should be built by the Government.
"It will be a very expensive undertaking, and there is no guarantee of success," said Mr Chik Hai Lam, a supervisor at Goldvein, which owns Liat Towers. "They are trying to push everything to developers. On the one hand, they want to enhance Orchard Road, on the other hand, they do not want to spend the money to do it."
Last month, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) sent a circular to Orchard Road building owners updating them on a 2004 grant scheme to build linkways in the area. No one had taken up the grant, and none of the proposed eight links was built.
