Opposition legislators yesterday bombarded Premier Yu Shyi-kun with questions about the Cabinet's decision to delay construction of the 86km Suao-Hualien Freeway for three months.
Yu yesterday reported back to the Legislative Yuan about the planned "New 10 Key Infrastructure Projects," hoping to expedite early legislative approval of the proposed statute governing expanding investment to public construction (
The Executive Yuan on Thursday announced that it would postpone construction of the freeway -- the first freeway in eastern Taiwan connecting Ilan County's Suao and Hualien County's Chian -- to provide time to consult the public about the plan.
Opposition lawmakers said the project had been put on hold for political gain in an attempt to attract votes from local environmentalists.
Yu said that the project had been suspended after Hualien County Commissioner Hsieh Shen-shan (
Hsieh expressed concerns on Thursday that the freeway could damage the environment.
"The opinion of Hualien residents would be the most important consideration in deciding whether to build the freeway," Yu said.
He said that the delay did not mean that the government was determined to cancel the project.
"The freeway plan mainly affects Hualien County, so the decision about whether to build it needs to take residents' opinion into account. It is up to the county government and council to determine whether an opinion poll or a county-wide referendum should take be held on the issue," Yu said.
He denied that the project had been put on hold as a result of a recent meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (
Yu said the opposition should refrain from politicizing the issue.
The idea of constructing a freeway in eastern Taiwan was first proposed by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in 1990 as part of a plan to build an island-wide freeway system.
The KMT government mapped out the plan for the Suao-Hualien Freeway in January 2000, two months before the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidential election.
The Environmental Protection Administration approved an impact study in June 2000, and the DPP administration announced in December last year that construction would start this month.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Hung-chun (
Fellow PFP Legislator Lee Tung-hao (
The suspension has been welcomed by academics and environmentalists in eastern Taiwan, but members of the business community in Ilan and Hualien objected to the decision.
The Executive Yuan yesterday formally sent a request to lawmakers to reconsider some articles of the Referendum Law (公民投票法). Leaders of the legislative caucuses decided to refer the request, along with the proposed statute on public construction, to the Procedure Committee next week, said DPP whip Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).
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