The Macao Special Administrative Region government has brought a study of an urban light rail project into its work agenda this year, according to a senior transportation official Monday.

Secretary for Public Works and Transport Ao Man Long said that the government plans to launch a consultation on the light rail feasibility study later this year.

Ao said that the public consultation exercise will gauge citizens' views on the future development of Macao's public transportation system. The feasibility study and the public consultation were expected to be completed in the first quarter next year.

Macao had considered the possibility of building a light rail system to improve public transport condition in the 1980s. However, none of the previous feasibility studies and proposed projects had ever made it beyond the drawing board.

The latest hot discussion on the matter was brought forward last year, after an in-depth feasibility proposal was turned out by Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway Corporation entrusted by the Macao government.

If the proposal is adopted, the light rail project built at a cost of 2.7 billion pataca (338 million US dollars) will be able to address the demand of bustling traffic in Macao in 2006 by taking up a daily passenger handling of 43,000 with 90 percent of the passengers tourists.

The focus of the issue takes into account three main aspects, namely Macao's high population and vehicle density, the expected growth in visitor arrivals, and the present and future connections of Macao's public transport network to that in the Pearl River Delta, such as the planned Hong Kong-Macao-Zhuhai bridge and a high-speed rail network among the delta's major cities.

By 2002, Macao had a total of 123,669 vehicles with 136 cars per 1,000 residents. With the present land coverage measured at just 26.8 square kilometers, Macao had a population of 448,700 residents at the end of last year, which makes it a city of the world's highest population and vehicle density. Meanwhile, the small town hosted a record number of 11.88 million visitors in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2004)