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Report on defense construction project to be made public

A report detailing the reasons behind the delays in the construction of the country's new military complex and a recent collapse will be made public next month, a military official said yesterday.

"We have confirmed that the soil where the collapse occurred is soft," said Major General Huang Sung (黃頌), a chief architect at the Ministry of National Defense's (MND) Armaments Bureau. "We will determine whether the soil condition was related to the collapse on May 14."

Huang made the remarks in response to media queries about the construction project, dubbed by the media "Taiwan's Pentagon Complex."

Once completed, it will house the ministry and the Air Force Command Headquarters.

delays

Initially, the section housing the Air Force Headquarters was to have been completed by last month. But so far, only 41 percent of the construction has been completed.

The completion date for that part of the project has been pushed back until next year.

"Construction [for the section] housing the MND was delayed because architect Chien Shao-ming (錢紹明) died in 2005," Huang said. "Because of this, we have had to recruit new architects to continue the work."

The ministry refers to the entire project as the "Poai Project."

The project, valued at NT$13.3 billion (US$403 million), includes the relocation of the ministry, Air Force Headquarters and National Defense University.

The ministry and Air Force Headquarters will be relocated to Dazhi (大直) in Taipei, neighboring the Hengshan Military Command Center (衡山指揮所) and Navy Command Headquarters.

nerve center

The four military units will then be referred to as the "Dazhi Military District" (大直軍事特區).

The ministry said that upon completion, the entire "Taiwan Pentagon Complex" will be able to house approximately 6,000 employees.

Access to the premises will be controlled through security measures such as photo identification and fingerprint scans, the ministry said.

Ground-based missiles will also be deployed at the complex to defend against potential air raids, it said.
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