Suggestions by city officials that Taipei's civil defense control center could serve as a backup rescue command point -- in the event of a natural disaster -- appear to have been shelved following their visit to the site yesterday.
In the wake of the 921 earthquake, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Chang Po-chin (張3??, commissioner of the city's fire department, said by 2003 the department is expected to set up a backup center at the intersection of Chengchou Road and Civil Boulevard.
A proposal for the new rescue center has been received by the city council, with officials now reviewing the plan.
"In this way, we will have two command centers located in the city's eastern and western areas respectively," Chang said, referring to the current rescue command center, located at the fire department's headquarters in Chunghsiao East Road, section five, as the one in the east part of the city.
Chang said the initiative was derived from the model Tapei city officials found in Japan -- in particular that of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government -- after their visit following the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.
But KMT city councilor Chen Li-hui (
Chen said the Taipei Civil Defense Control Center would be ideal and yesterday it saw crowds of visitors, as the center was exposed to media coverage for the first time since it was relocated last year to its current site, at the foot of Fushan (福?s) mountain range on Chungshan North Road.
The center, now under the administration of the Taipei Municipal Police Department, is composed of a two-storey administrative building, with four tunnels inside the mountain serving as the city's wartime command center.
Reporters were forbidden to shoot pictures inside the defense command center.
Inside the newly furnished tunnels there was defense information in preparation for war, including graphs on air raid disasters and forecasts on radioactive dust caused by a nuclear weapons attack.
In a subsequent briefing, staffers from the center said it was better for the sake of national security that the site was not used as a temporary substitute for the city's rescue command center.
Huang Po-lin (黃柏霖), director of the command bureau said, "Once the center is working as a rescue command point, reporters will be free to move around the restricted area and the confidential nature of the site will be lifted."
Huang also said the facilities at the center are designed for wartime use and this was not compatible with the necessities a rescue command center should have.
Wang Jinn-wang (
"So I suggest that there is a more ideal place than this to serve as a temporary backup rescue command center," Wang said.
On a visit to the center yesterday, Ma said he was aware of the national security factor involved. "Of course we don't want to see this place bombed [by China] if the war [across the Taiwan Strait] starts," he said.
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