Bomb disposal and light public housing teams honoured
AM730 · 2 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
At a ceremony at Government Headquarters on August 14, the Chief Executive’s Commendation List recognised two teams: the cross-departmental action and support group that handled a wartime bomb in Quarry Bay, and the cross-departmental team for the Light Public Housing project. John Lee Ka-chiu said the two award-winning teams took on very different missions but both delivered results efficiently and won public trust through practical work.
Key Points
- The awards ceremony was held on August 14 at Government Headquarters, with this year’s winners named as the wartime bomb handling support group and the Light Public Housing project team.
- Lee said a roughly 1,000-pound unexploded Second World War bomb was found at a Quarry Bay construction site in September last year as a super typhoon approached.
- The Security Bureau’s Emergency Monitoring and Support Centre activated an interdepartmental emergency mechanism, while police led evacuation, traffic control and high-risk bomb disposal operations.
- The Home Affairs Department coordinated district councillors, Care Teams and volunteers to help evacuate about 3,000 residents quickly and run a temporary shelter overnight.
- The Housing Bureau and Architectural Services Department used modular integrated construction and standardised designs for 30,000 Light Public Housing units, helping cut the overall public housing waiting time by 1.3 years.
Why It Matters
The two awards underline the government’s effort to show it can respond to both sudden public safety threats and long-running housing pressure with coordinated execution. For residents, the recognised work points to two immediate concerns in Hong Kong life: emergency protection and faster access to more affordable housing.