Transportation officials yesterday expressed optimism over the controversial Suao-Hualien freeway (
"I believe the environmental impact assessments will be passed soon," Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
The ministry yesterday proposed a NT$3.3 billion budget for the construction of the freeway next year.
"The highway project has been initiated to boost the local economy. We never said that we will abandon the project," Lin said.
The contested NT$96.2 billion project has been put on hold after Premier Yu Shyi-kun announced its suspension in December last year, after Hualien County Commissioner Hsieh Shen-shan (謝深山) gave voice to local environmentalists' strong opposition.
Last month, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) demanded that the freeway authority, the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau, detail the possible environmental impact and "give serious thought" to an alternative development project, such as the Hualien-Taitung Express Train project initiated by the Council of Economic Planning and Development.
Despite the freeway bill increasingly becoming a battleground for different government agencies, the bureau said that it will push ahead with the project.
"We have done comprehensive geological and hydrological surveys on the areas where the highway will pass through. The EPA's review is part of administrative procedures. The construction of the highway is simply a matter of time," bureau director-general Bane Chiou (
According to the bureau, the construction companies involved -- Taiwan's Longda Construction Co and the Japanese firm Maeda Kaisha -- can legally demand compensation if the bureau fails to break ground for the project by early 2006.
However, academics said the economic cost could be even higher if the freeway is built.
"Every Taiwanese citizen will be paying between NT$200,000 and NT$300,000 for the highway. Does the government tell the people about the price? This only indicates the government's fiscal irresponsibility," said Hsia Yue-joe (
Hsia said the freeway project was no more than a rough election gambit when President Chen Shui-bian (
"It is a leftover from local politicking. Who decided to build the highway? The president. Instead of a bottom-up approach to formulate the policy, the government only plays up the project to woo voters," he said.
Although both elected legislators in the Hualien constituency, the Democratic Progressive Party's nominee Lu Po-chi (
"The voting rate in Hualien plummeted to lower than 50 percent, the lowest in the whole nation. It shows that not all Hualien people want the freeway. It is just a question of whose voice gets heard," he said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS