In the 10 years since the Tunghsing Building in Taipei City was leveled by the 921 Earthquake in 1999, 68-year-old Mrs. Chien (簡) and most of her fellow residents have been forced to live with relatives or move around while waiting for their home to be reconstructed.
The rebuilding project, which began in 2004 and was suspended twice because of the contractors’ financial problems, was finally inaugurated on Saturday, with more than 70 of the 84 former households preparing to return to the 14-story building at the intersection of Bade Road and Hulin Street.
“I’ve been renting apartments in the vicinity since the earthquake. Ten years is a very long time, and I am glad that I can finally move back home,” she said on Saturday while chatting with old neighbors who gathered to attend the inauguration.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
The memory of the night of the massive earthquake, which killed more than 2,400 people, remains vivid for Chien. She and her husband were sleeping in their 10th floor apartment, and they managed to escape through the air conditioning vents as the whole building collapsed in seconds, she said.
The Tunghsiung Building was the only structure in Taipei City to be completely destroyed by the quake, which was centered about 200km outside the city. Eighty-seven people in the building were killed, 105 injured and more than 250 left homeless in the collapse.
While other collapsed buildings around the country were rebuilt over the years, the road to reconstruction was a bumpy one for Tunghsing’s residents. The project was halted twice after two contractors declared bankruptcy, one in 2006 and the other last year, while a lawsuit filed by survivors against the Taipei City Government was an additional financial burden on those residents.
In 2000, the residents filed a NT$1.5 billion (US$45 million) lawsuit against the city for issuing an operation license to the original contractor despite the building’s substandard construction. Then-Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration refused to admit responsibility for the collapse, but the Taiwan High Court ruled in 2005 that the city must pay NT$330 million to the residents. The city appealed the ruling.
The legal war between the city and the residents remained unsettled until 2007, when Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) agreed to pay the residents NT$120 million.
Catherine Liao (廖汶錡), director of Tunghsing Building Reconstruction Association, said the residents had mixed feelings about the 10-year reconstruction process, but she declined to comment on the lawsuit.
“We remain thankful for the city government’s administrative assistance,” she said.
Chen Chien-hua (陳建華), a member of Tunghsing Building Self-help Association, however, criticized Ma as indifferent to the residents’ pain and incapable of handling the aftermath of the building’s collapse.
“It took President Ma Ying-jeou 10 years to rebuild the Tunghsing Building. Let’s wait and see how many years he needs to rebuild the areas hard-hit by Typhoon Morakot,” he said.
Chen, who lost his mother and brother in the 921 Earthquake, said the time-consuming lawsuit and the delays in the reconstruction process resulted in a NT$100 million construction surcharge, forcing each household to pay several million NT dollars in addition to their original mortgage.
Liao said about 90 percent of residents had not moved back into building because of paperwork and mortgage issues. The paperwork process and mortgage negotiation with banks and the contractor could take months.
Chien is one of the lucky few who will be moving back in soon. She will be back on the 10th floor, but just with her son because her husband passed away seven months ago.
“My biggest regret is that my husband did not live to see the new building and return home with me,” she said.
Chen said if the former Ma administration had used its power to help facilitate the reconstruction process, instead of challenging the residents in a legal fight, the building would have been rebuilt years ago, saving residents time and money.
Lin Chung-huan (林崇煥), director of the city’s Urban Redevelopment Office, said the city government had given subsidies to the residents and negotiated with the central government to win the residents lower interest rates on their mortgages.
The office will hold a meeting with Ministry of Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency tomorrow to discuss ways to facilitate the remaining paperwork.
When asked about the mortgage issue and the construction surcharge, Lin said the surcharge was caused by the rising price of construction materials in recent years.
“The city government has no responsibility for the mortgages and surcharge. It is the residents’ job to negotiate with the banks and pay the money,” he said.
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
The Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP) has funded short-term internships in Taiwan for more than 4,500 young people from more than 40 countries since 2015, with the goal of attracting and retaining international talent, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Fifty-five colleges launched 514 projects this year, including in fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, medicine and biotechnology, green energy, and sustainability, it said. The program provides research and practical internships in Taiwan for two to six months, and offers cultural exchange and networking opportunities, the ministry said. For example, National Formosa University’s Embedded System and Autopilot Laboratory developed two solar-powered drones in
SOVEREIGNTY: The rigs show that Beijing ‘rejects Taiwan’s jurisdiction’ by building in areas where Taipei demands permission to build or alter installations Chinese oil rigs have been sighted just 26 nautical miles (42km), from Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島), posing a threat to Taiwan’s sovereignty if left unchallenged, a brief published by the Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday said. Pratas Island, 444km from Kaohsiung, is northeast of the South China Sea and houses a Taiwanese garrison. The brief, titled “Rigging the Game: PRC Oil Structures Encroach on Taiwan’s Pratas Island” — referring to the People’s Republic of China — analyzed photographs and said that Beijing’s tools to pressure Taiwan now include oil rigs. “Oil rigs now constitute part of Beijing’s
RSS