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Kaohsiung's cable car project to be revived

Construction of the nation's first downtown cable car system could soon resume after the plan was suspended for more than a year, the Kaohsiung City Government's Urban Development Bureau said yesterday.

The bureau has recently modified its plan to build a cross-harbor tourism cableway system connecting Shoushan (壽山) and Chihou (旗后), while changing the route to connect Hsinbin Wharf (新濱碼頭) and Chihou, the bureau’s press release said.

The 1.5km route is expected to pass Cijin’s (旗津) Miaocian Road and the Cijin Seaside Park, the release said, adding that a certain “famous corporation” had expressed interest in investing in the project.

The bureau said it would first like to complete construction of the route and decide whether to extend it after obtaining feedback from city residents.

The bureau said that it would also seek subsidies from the central government to improve the environment along the planned route.

The city government has been planning construction of the NT$3 billion (US$98 million) cable car system since 2002, with the aim of transforming the Cijin area into the “Sentosa” of Kaohsiung and to integrate tourist attractions before the World Games, which the city will host next year.

The city government was expected to complete the structure by April 2004, but several complications hindered the progress. A public survey of residents in 2001 showed that as many as 73 percent of respondents supported the project.

The initial plan was to build two different gondola routes, with one 2.65km route connecting Shoushan and Chihou, and a 2.6km route connecting Waterfront Park and the Tuntex building.

Such a cable car system would help “demonstrate the charm of [the city’s] natural landscapes — its rivers, seafront, harbors and mountains,” the project’s official Web site said.

However, the plan was first called into question by environmentalists during a series of review meetings convened by then-Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) in November 2004, where participants urged the city government to drop the initial routes for fear they might endanger the ecosystem, historical heritage sites and the vast maritime and mountainous landscape.

Opposition to the routes by the Ministry of National Defense on matters of defense confidentiality added to the difficulties, forcing the company that bid for the build-operate-and-transfer project in 2003 to drop the application in March last year.
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