The Government will invite the media to cover the official opening ceremony of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.

In a statement today, the Transport & Housing Bureau said the ceremony will be held in the morning of September 22 and will be jointly hosted by the Chief Executive and Governor of Guangdong Province Ma Xingrui.

In response to media enquiries on the reporting arrangements for the handover of the Mainland Port Area, the bureau said the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (Co-location) Ordinance came into operation today to dovetail with the preparatory works for the implementation of the co-location arrangement at the West Kowloon Station.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government carried out the handover of the Mainland Port Area at the working level in the evening of September 3 in a modest and simple manner, it said.

Press releases were issued by both sides so citizens could be aware of the arrangements, the bureau said.

Regarding media reports about a B5 level at the station, the bureau said the area is a back of house service corridor underneath the B4 Platform Level of the station managed by the Mass Transit Railway Corporation.

The corridor has plant rooms for air conditioning, drainage and sewage systems and will be used during rescue and evacuation. It is not an area for passenger use and is not within the Mainland Port Area.

It said the corridor, which has a significantly smaller floor area of a typical level, is not a floor and that it was marked as B5 level for easy identification.

In September 2016, the bureau and the Highways Department mentioned that works were ongoing at the B5 level in a quarterly report submitted to the Legislative Council, it said, adding there is no question of covering up the matter.

It also said the corridor was designed based on the fire safety risk assessment by the MTR Corporation to satisfy buildings legislation and fire safety guidelines.

When personnel need to enter the corridor, they must enter through the cross-boundary restricted area with a valid cross-boundary restricted area permit issued by the MTR Corporation and have its authorisation before they enter the corridor to perform duties.

Other than in the above circumstances, nobody will be entitled to use the corridor. All exits and entrances to the corridor, including passageways, doors and lifts that connect with the Mainland Port Area, are locked by security systems.

The railway operator has a stringent control mechanism and has assigned patrols to prevent unauthorised entry, the bureau said.