An emergency drill should be held each month from next month to May on the Suhua Highway to ensure a high level of disaster preparedness, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday during a bus trip on the problematic stretch of road.
As the rainy season approaches, Ma said, information about the drills should also be made available online so the public can become familiar with the highway’s road conditions and be better prepared in the event of a natural disaster.
Upgrading the highway began late last month after 26 people were killed there by landslides during Typhoon Megi in October.
In a briefing to Ma, the head of the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH), Wu Meng-fen (吳盟分), said the DGH would erect another four changeable message signs along the highway by the end of April to provide real-time traffic information.
Wu added that the DGH planned to install 35 additional closed-circuit television cameras and designate 21 emergency shelters to enhance evacuation capability on the highway.
Meanwhile, on the second day of a hiking activity organized by Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁) to promote tourism along the highway, Fu joined the briefing and asked the president to help give Hualien more exposure by promoting the county to international media.
Fu also urged the government to keep gravel trucks off the road as the vehicles could damage the highway’s foundations, some sections of which are built on geologically unstable land.
In response, Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), who was also on the tour along with Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), said his ministry would enhance rail and sea transportation in eastern Taiwan to help transport gravel.
Mao said the measure, expected to take effect on July 1, would reduce the volume of traffic by at least 70 percent on sections of the highway south of Heren (和仁), a major mining area, by 2013.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS