Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) yesterday said the ministry hopes that the Airport Rail service can be launched sometime before October next year, adding that even that was a challenging goal.
Yeh made the statement in an interview with Voice of Taipei program host Clara Chou (周玉蔻) in the morning.
The ministry under Yeh’s leadership came under severe criticism recently for failing to meet its self-designated deadlines for major public construction projects it has led, including the Wugu-Yangmei Overpass and the Airport Rail. It was also blamed for traffic congestion on freeways during the Tomb Sweeping holiday last week.
Yeh said that the ministry had already postponed the official launch of the Airport Rail from June this year to October next year.
An issue with Marubeni Corp, which is in charge of construction of the Airport Rail’s electromechanical systems, could cause the ministry to postpone the launch again, he said.
“The ministry cannot accept the official operation date proposed by Marubeni,” Yeh said. “Our hope is that the system will not be delayed for too long. It would be great if the system could be launched within one year of October, but that would be a challenging task.”
Yeh added that the Airport Rail’s electromechanical systems were built by Marubeni, Hitachi and Kawasaki.
He said that the ministry had asked Hitachi and Kawasaki, which are both technically strong, to help Marubeni overcome any issues, because all three would be blamed for any construction delays.
“We will determine if the new deadline for launching the Airport Rail proposed by Marubeni is practical and viable,” Yeh said. “We will not be messed around by Marubeni.”
Asked why the the contractor had been assigned the project, Yeh said the contract was signed in 2006 and the ministry could now only enforce the terms of the contract even it was imperfect. He said that investigations by prosecutors had found no evidence that Marubeni had been assigned the contract illegally, but he said that there was room for improvement in terms of contractor selection.
Regarding freeway congestion during the Tomb Sweeping holiday, Yeh said that he would not censure National Freeway Bureau Director-General Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁), even though he was responsible for supervising the bureau.
“I hope that government workers can be proactive,” he said. “Doling out punishment constantly would only cause them to have a mentality of ‘the less one does, the fewer mistakes one makes.’”
He also paraphrased late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher regarding consensus and decisionmaking, saying, “I am not making decisions based on consensus, but on my beliefs.”
“As a leader, you should have values and beliefs,” he added. “It is simply irresponsible to respond to public criticism by simply giving someone a demerit.”
Yeh also said that Tseng is qualified to lead the bureau because he has produced results in the past.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS