The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) says it is considering the feasibility of extending the Danshui MRT line to Danhai New Township (淡海新市鎮) to help accelerate the community’s development.
A proposed elevated Danhai line, a medium-capacity light rail transit system (LRT), would run from Hongshulin Station on the existing Danshui line to Danhai New Township and allow the community’s residents to get to Taipei Main Station in one hour.
Following a meeting on Thursday to discuss the feasibility of the project that also included representatives from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), CEPD Deputy Minister Hwang Wang-hsiang (黃萬翔) said the project would contribute to the new township’s development.
The new community has been planned to accommodate 300,000 residents, but to date only 453 hectares of the community’s 1,756 hectares have been developed, largely because of the lack of convenient transportation and peripheral services.
Hwang said the line would take six to seven years to build and could also be extended to Danshui Station. Provisions also exist for a spur line that would connect Danhai New Township and Fisherman’s Wharf, a tourist destination at the mouth of the Tamsui River (淡水河).
The MOTC has estimated that the line from Hongshulin Station to Danhai New Township would cost NT$9.7 billion (US$310 million) to build. Adding a loop line to Danshui Station would cost an additional NT$2.1 billion, an MOTC official said.
According to a local media report, the project had been previously rejected by the MOTC over concerns that it was too expensive, but the idea is now being revived because of the upcoming municipal elections.
Officials from both the CEPD and MOTC, however, told the Central News Agency that the report was wrong on both counts.
The MOTC did ask for additions to an initial project plan, but it had not turned it down and the MOTC’s evaluation has followed a schedule unrelated to election activities, an MOTC official said.
Taipei County, which is to be upgraded to a special municipality called Sinbei City (新北市), will elect a new mayor later this year.
A CEPD official said the light-rail project would contribute to Danhai New Township’s development, but other supplementary measures would also be needed to boost services and entice more people to move to the community.
Hwang said the MOTC would include a neighborhood development plan as part of the project and would submit it to the CEPD for review.
If the project is approved by the CEPD, it will then be submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval, Hwang said.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS