Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday the government was set to allocate a budget of NT$40 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the construction of a new mountain highway connecting Suao in the northeast and Hualien in the east.
The statement followed a decision by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications late last month to scrap a controversial Suhua Expressway project and instead propose building a less ambitious mountain highway that may intersect with parts of the existing highway.
The government will tender work on the proposed highway by the end of the year after the project passes an environmental impact assessment, while some latitude will be kept for future upgrades, he said.
PHOTO: YANG YI-MIN, TAIPEI TIMES
In his capacity as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) solicited grassroots opinion on the matter on Sunday while campaigning in Hualien County for Wang Ting-sheng (王廷升), the KMT candidate in an upcoming legislative by-election.
He relayed grassroots calls in favor of the mountain highway at the weekly coordination meeting attended by Ma and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), the heads of the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan and the KMT.
Wu said in the meeting that an additional NT$1.8 billion would be allocated to improve the Suao-Hualien Highway that cuts through coastal cliffs and is vulnerable to landslides.
Improving transportation links between the two areas on the east coast has long stirred controversy.
An expensive expressway was proposed more than a decade ago but has faced strong opposition from environmental experts and activists who said it would destroy the flora, fauna and ecological balance in the area.
With many unconvinced that simply repairing the highway would solve Hualien’s transportation woes, the mountain highway was proposed as a compromise.
At present, Hualien County can be accessed from the north by the mostly single lane Suao-Hualien Highway and from the west by a windy road that cuts through the central mountains.
EXCUSES: Beijing is using government and research vessels as a pretext to harass the nation and enter its EEZ, and engage in ‘hegemonic expansion,’ the coast guard said The Coast Guard Administration yesterday said it drove away Chinese oceanographic research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 (向陽紅33) from restricted waters after warning it that it was in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Chinese vessel entered restricted waters off the coast of Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) at 11:35pm on Thursday, the coast guard said, adding that it dispatched the Lanyu patrol vessel and the boat PP-10077 to shadow the Chinese ship and issue radio warnings ordering it to leave. China has no sovereignty over waters off Taiwan’s east coast, Lanyu’s crew told Xiang Yang Hong 22 over the radio, and demanded
BAIT AND SWITCH: Allowing KMT-run counties to sell to China while the threat of abrupt cancelations hangs overhead is another form of coercion, officials said Beijing is using agricultural purchase offers announced during the Straits Forum to deepen Taiwan’s dependence on the Chinese market, a Taiwanese official said yesterday as they criticized the Taitung County commissioner’s participation in the initiative. During the Straits Forum held in Xiamen on Saturday, Chinese officials announced a sales and purchase agreement for agricultural products from some counties led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴), who was barred from attending the event in person by the Mainland Affairs Council, participated via video. Under the agreement, China would purchase atemoyas, pomeloes, tea and grouper harvested in Taitung,
SHIFTING FIRE: While the tempo of purely military exercises around Taiwan has gone down somewhat, Beijing is working to isolate Lai diplomatically from support abroad Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is shifting tactics in his campaign to pressure Taiwan, ramping up diplomatic isolation of the nation while dialing down provocative displays of military aggression. Taiwan recorded a daily average of five Chinese military aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait’s buffer line with China through May this year — half the number logged in the same period last year. In March, Beijing did not send a single fighter jet near Taiwan for seven days, the longest absence on record outside of typhoon season. In comparison, China sent 153 planes near Taiwan during one day at its peak in
Four Taiwanese universities have been ranked among the world's top 200 institutions in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for next year, the highest Taiwan has ever placed in the category, with National Taiwan University (NTU) achieving its best performance at 54th globally and 17th in Asia. The four Taiwanese institutions in the global top 200 are NTU (54th), National Tsing Hua University (142nd), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (177th) and National Cheng Kung University (191st), the rankings showed. All four universities achieved their highest-ever global rankings this year, QS data showed. National Cheng Kung University entered the top 200 for
RSS