THE Central Government has ordered a team of officials to find out if there is a need for a bridge linking Hong Kong with Macao and Zhuhai.

　　State leaders expect to receive recommendations on the plan within weeks, a South China Morning Post report said.

　　A delegation from the Transport Research Institute of the State Development Planning Commission visited Hong Kong last week for a series of meetings to gather data and opinions on the project.

　　The institute will complete a study on the feasibility of the bridge in time for the 16th Communist Party Congress in November.

　　Experts from the engineering and logistics sectors attended the meetings.

　　The study would look primarily at the need and timing of the bridge and estimate what gains the project would bring to the Pearl River Delta and western China under the Go West development campaign.

　　Financial arrangements — including the crucial question of whether the bridge should be privately or publicly funded — and other technical details will be investigated next year.

　　Senior officials of the Hong Kong SAR Government, including Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and Financial Secretary Antony Leung, publicly supported the bridge recently.

　　(SD-Agencies)