The Directorate-General of Highways is scheduled to hold a preliminary drill on Suhua Highway for its employees sometime next month at the earliest, directorate chief engineer Chen Ching-fa (陳進發) said.
“Along with other disaster-prevention agencies, we plan to jointly launch a drill on the Suhua Highway either next month or in April,” Chen said.
Chen said the directorate chose Suhua Highway for the drill because it is the most challenging stretch of highway in the nation and a large-scale drill would expose the limitations of coordinated efforts and how the public would respond to the actions taken by government agencies.
Considering the natural disasters brought by Typhoon Megi last year, which killed 38 tourists on the highway, Chen said that the directorate was also working with the Tourism Bureau to see if licensed tour guides should be included in efforts to help prevent casualties.
Chen said the drill would need to be approved by the road traffic safety committees of Yilan County and Hualien County before it could be carried out.
DGH Director-General Wu Meng-fen (吳盟分) said the scale of the drill was similar to that of the annual Wanan military drill (萬安演習). The directorate will make an official announcement about the drill at least 15 days before the scheduled date, Wu said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it