With Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) embroiled in bribery allegations related to a public housing development in Taoyuan County, a group of environmental activists yesterday accused the company of being involved in illegal acts in relation to the Taipei Dome project.
Having patrolled the Taipei Dome construction site for more than 40 days, members of the Taiwan Green Power Union — a group of activists and volunteers dedicated to protecting the trees in streets by the site from being relocated — protested in front of Taipei City Hall yesterday morning ahead of a project coordination meeting.
Songshan Tobacco Factory Park Union director Yu Yi (游藝) said his organization had discovered several flaws in the process by which Farglory won the bid for the project, leading them to suspect the build-operate-transfer (BOT) project was handed to Farglory as the result of bid-rigging.
Photo: Kuo An-chia, Taipei Times
“Renting the 10.02 hectares of land to Farglory for 50 years without charging any royalty fee means that this land, which belongs to Taipei residents, has been given to Farglory, but city residents stand to gain no profit at all,” Yu said.
He said the land is worth hundreds of billions of New Taiwan dollars, but it is being rented to the company for only 1 percent of its current value.
Several members of the Taipei City Government were treated to banquets by the company during the evaluation and selection process, Yu said, adding that while the city government’s department of ethics investigated the banquets, then-Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) allowed the company to win the bid and current Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) issued a construction permit to the company.
Yu said the group would file data which might be evidence of bid-rigging with the Agency Against Corruption in a few days.
The protesters shouted slogans such as “government-business collusion” and “illegally cutting down trees,” and “everyone against the black-hearted dome,” before insisting that “not even one tree should be removed.”
The city government originally banned the activists and reporters from attending the meeting, but later allowed the media to attend after a protest lodged by the activists and the press.
However, with the city government unwilling to accept the activists’ road construction plans — with all the trees preserved in their current locations — a few members of the group of activists left the meeting as an act of protest.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚), convener of the meeting, said that transportation specialists would be called in to discuss whether alternative street plans that would not affect the street trees could be designed, adding that no trees on Guangfu S Road would be relocated before then.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS