Two former officers of New Territories South (NTS) Region, Senior Superintendents Ivy Cheng and Gary Field, returned to NTS Regional Headquarters on August 30 to unveil a commemorative plaque to mark the opening of the NTS Regional Operations & Traffic Control Room.

Ivy and Gary were invited to perform the opening ceremony in recognition of their contributions to the design and completion of the new operations room as former head and deputy head of the NTS Operations Bureau.

Prior to the unveiling, NTS Regional Commander William Tang How-kong extended a warm welcome and expressed his heartfelt compliments to both officers before a large gathering of representatives, both disciplined and civilian, from Administration, Traffic, and NTS Operations Bureau.

Before their respective secondment to Security Bureau as Government Security Officer and transfer to Yuen Long District as Deputy District Commander upon promotion in April this year, Ivy and Gary were in charge of NTS Operations Bureau as SSP OPS and SP OPS NTS respectively. Following the Force Exercise "Goodhoper" last November and its subsequent "after action review", both Ivy and Gary came to terms with the fact that monitoring a major event in NTS using the NT HICOM was not entirely desirable and the then NTS Operations Room, which was separated from NTS Traffic Control Room, was too small and ill-equipped to serve as a HICOM for RC NTS for command and control of a major event in NTS.

The idea of enhancing the facilities in the Operations Room and combining the Traffic Control Room to form a new Operations and Traffic Control Room was mooted and its urgency noted in view of the approach of major events, including the CE's Election in March and, in particular, the Olympic Test Event in August, the venues of which involved both NTS and NTN Regions. As a result of the two officers' drives, exceptional planning, co-ordination and management skills, the whole project was completed in three months, with the new Operations and Traffic Control Room ready for full operation for the CE's Election at the Asia World Expo at Chek Lap Kok on March 25.

The new NTS Regional Operations & Traffic Control Room is equipped with a video wall comprising eight separate flat-screen TVs, a separate plasma TV, and three workstations for the Controller, Operations Control as well as Traffic Control. Besides the CE's Election, it operated as a HICOM for NTS Region for the HKSAR 10th Anniversary Celebratory Events in late June and early July, as well as the Olympic Test Event in August. Feedback from staff on the new Operations Room has been positive.

"I would also want to express my gratitude to my colleagues from Traffic, Administration Bureau, and both the Information Technology Branch and Communications Branch for their efforts in making the project a great success," concluded SSP Ivy Cheng.

SSP Field and SSP Cheng are pleased to see the fruition of the efforts they have put into the design and completion of the new operations and control room