Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday urged Taiwan High Speed Railway Corp (THSRC) executive not to create difficulties about the construction of three more stations in Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin because the plan has been “carved in stone.”
“Residents in the three counties favor the policy. A few THSRC executives should not act against their will,” Government Information Office Vice Minister Hsu Chiu-huang (許秋煌) quoted Wu as saying at the weekly Cabinet meeting.
The THSRC’s board of directors have yet to approve the plan to erect the three stations.
Wu has instructed the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to dissuade the executives from altering the proposal, Hsu said.
Hsu quoted Wu as dismissing ground subsidence issues in Changhua and Yunlin counties because the government put forward a plan to resolve that problem in 10 years and to ensure its long-term safe and sustainable operation.
“We won’t allow THRSC executives who have benefited from the government to go against the public. Without the government’s efforts to revive the economy, thereby boosting the number of passengers and endorsements, the THRSC would not have acquired a combined NT$380 billion in bank loans last year,” Hsu quoted Wu as saying.
The premier also instructed the ministry to conduct an assessment on operating direct trains from Taipei to Tainan, Hsu said, acting on a request from Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德).
In other news, Hsu said that Wu also expressed strong disapproval at the meeting over the Forestry Bureau’s policy of terminating leases of forestry land and letting the land sit idle.
Hsu quoted Wu as saying that “the bureau was so incompetent” it insisted on taking back leased land, leading to a loss of revenue.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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