The Link Management will spend HK$200 million to install new facilities for the disabled at its 180 shopping malls and car parks by 2016 after being criticised by the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Starting this month, the project will be rolled out in three phases to provide barrier-free facilities - including tactile guide paths, ramps, elevating platforms and specially designed toilets at The Link's properties.
The initiative comes after the commission in June criticised eight properties owned by The Link over a lack of barrier-free facilities for the disabled, including Tai Wo and Tai Hing shopping centres and the Kwai Hing and Tsz Lok car parks. The company said all of those singled out would be upgraded in March.
'We will comply fully with the Design Manual 2008 standard and progressively accomplish an improvement by considering users' needs, urgency and actual conditions of the centres in the next five years,' said Poon Kai-tik, director of corporate communications for The Link.
'Over 90 per cent will be completed by 2014.'
The manual, introduced in 1997 and revised in 2008, pressures new developments to provide full accessibility for the disabled.
Commission chairman Lam Woon-kwong said: 'We are pleased that The Link has pledged to upgrade its facilities to the best practicable level.'
