The photo, taken on 30th May, shows the construction site of the western Kowloon station of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link. [Photo: gov.cn]

The opening of a high-speed railway linking Hong Kong and Guangdong province will be postponed to 2018.

Along with the one-year delay, the railway's construction cost is expected to exceed its budget by 20 billion HK dollars.

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The Mass Transit Railway Corporation submitted its latest assessment report for the railway project to the Hong Kong SAR government, saying spending will reach 85 billion HK dollars, exceeding the budget by about 30 percent.

MTR Chief Executive Officer Leong Kwok-kuen explains reasons for the increased budget.

"There are three reasons behind the overspending: first, the construction period is longer than scheduled; second, it includes unplanned costs such as extra projects caused by geological conditions that we did not expect; third, the construction cost has been increased, including both manpower costs and prices for materials."

According to the report, the project will be completed by the third quarter of 2018. Completion of the project, originally planned for 2015, previously had been delayed until 2017.

Cheung Bing-leung, head of Hong Kong's Transport and Housing Bureau, says the additional delay is unacceptable.

"The Highways Department, along with audit consultants, will strictly review the assessment report. The government, I'd like to repeat, the government will not easily accept any revised completion date or increased budget."

Cheung says the government will conduct a thorough review of MTR's performance to see if someone should be held accountable for the delay and the deficit.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link is an important high-speed railway connecting the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.

The mainland section between Guangzhou and Shenzhen has been in use since December, 2011.

The 26-km long Hong Kong Section, also known as the XRL, will connect West Kowloon in Hong Kong with Shenzhen at a speed of 250km per hour.