The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said on Tuesday said niches in public columbaria would be allocated on a monthly basis from August.

The new practice will replace the current annual allocation system at three facilities – Wo Hop Shek Columbarium phase VI in Fanling, Cape Collinson-San Ha Columbarium in Chai Wan and Shek Mun Columbarium in Sha Tin.

Currently, only the Tsang Tsui Columbarium in Tuen Mun allocates public niches under a monthly system.

Under the new arrangement, the four columbaria will be able to provide around 1,600 niches per month, the department said.

Assistant director of grade management and development Tsoi Ka-wai said the new arrangement would allow people to lodge applications at any time of the year.

“Through the new allocations, applicants need not wait for one whole year before making the applications. This is our purpose of the enhancement,” he said.

Tsoi added that this supply of public niches would be enough to cope with public demand.

“In the past two years, about 20,000 applications [were] received, and the actual allocation [was] about 19,000 niches,” he said.

“We observed that the trend is staying more or less the same, maintaining at about 19,000 niches in each year in the past.

“So through the new monthly allocation arrangement, we provide such numbers to the market. We have confidence that this amount, say about 19,000 niches, we can meet the demand of the market.”

Before the new arrangement starts on August 1, the department would conduct the last annual allocation of more than 12,000 niches at the three columbaria in April, Tsoi said.



Edited by Thomas McAlinden