President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday instructed the Tourism Bureau to help residents of Alishan (阿里山), which was devastated by Typhoon Morakot last month, set up booths to promote tourism and agricultural products.
Inspecting a restoration project at the Alishan Highway in Jiayi County yesterday morning, Ma was airlifted to Jhongsing Elementary School by a rescue helicopter and then transported by car to the Fushan (福山) section of the highway.
More than 270m of the road were washed away by landslides and mudslides during the storm that hit the nation on Aug. 8.
Morakot claimed 17 lives in Chiayi County and left two missing. At press time, the number of confirmed fatalities nationwide had reached 619, with 76 listed as missing or presumed dead, the Web site of the National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission showed.
Village wardens yesterday appealed to Ma to ensure that repair work on the Alishan Highway was carried out in a speedy manner, saying the road was a lifeline for mountainous settlements and the only link to tourism there. A resident said it would make Ma and his party look very bad if they could not even fix a road.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday that only 71m of the road had yet to be repaired. He said he hoped to see the preliminary stage of reconstruction completed between Tuesday and next Sunday, which would allow access by four-wheel-drive vehicles.
The road should be ready for passenger cars by the end of next month, he said.
By the end of the year, medium-size buses should be able to travel up to Longtou (巃頭) in Fanlu Township (番路), while a timetable for access by large-size buses remained undetermined, he said.
Tourism Bureau Director General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said Morakot dealt a significant blow to the county’s most profitable tourist attraction, the Alishan Forest Recreation Area (阿里山國家森林遊樂區), which has remained closed since.
Bureau statistics showed that the park served more than 2.68 million people from January to July, an increase of 1 million, or 60 percent, from the same period last year. However, the typhoon is estimated to have brought the number down by 750,000 for the second part of the year, causing an estimated NT$1.05 billion (US$32.8 million) in losses.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) proposed to set up booths on flat land to promote agricultural produce from the disaster area before the Alishan Highway is ready for large buses, an idea endorsed by Ma.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said one way to promote Alishan was to bring Chinese tourists to the area, urging agencies that “have the power, the ability and the responsibility” to bring tourist groups.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said the visit showed that the “Action Cabinet” was sparing no effort to act, which was exactly what the president expected of the new government.
Ma and Wu also visited Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties.
At a separate setting, Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) requested that Cabinet officials accelerate the pace of recovery and complete necessary bylaws of the Post-Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction Special Act (莫拉克颱風災後重建特別條例).
Chu made the remarks in a preparatory meeting for the fourth meeting of the Post Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction Commission, which is scheduled to be held today.
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