Lawmakers were busy trying to bring home the bacon at the legislature’s Transportation Committee meeting yesterday, asking the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to expand MRT systems to reach more cities they represent.
They passed resolutions to extend the Taichung MRT route to Taiping (太平) and Dali (大里) of Taichung County and the Taichung Port and to stretch the Kaohsiung MRT route all the way to the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan County and to Pingtung County.
Two of the proposals were made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Lien-fu (江連福), who represents a district in Taichung, while another resolution was proposed by KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who represents a district in Kaohsiung.
Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) said the ministry simply cannot afford to construct all the train routes proposed by the legislators.
“We have already approved some of the projects, which cost more than NT$300 billion [US$9.7 billion]. But if we include all those [projects] that have yet to be approved, we would need about NT$1 trillion to execute all of them. This is beyond our capacity,” he said.
He said on average, each kilometer of a MRT line costs approximately NT$4 billion. He said that the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA), the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and freeway bus operators should be key transportation carriers between cities.
The ministry said it has budgeted NT$5 million this fiscal year for Taipei City’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems to evaluate the feasibility of extending the Airport Rail System to Sijhih (汐止) in Taipei City and Keelung.
The ministry also said the Airport Rail might not be able to launch on time, as contractors are unwilling to handle government projects due to rising prices of steel and other construction materials.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS