Sunday's opening of an underground shopping mall located in Taipei's MRT system was the focus of attention in the Taipei City Council yesterday as councilors slammed the mall's operator for opening the shopping center before bringing its safety facilities up to proper standards.
Councilors demanded the city government take action to punish the company.
Admitting the opening was an illegal act, Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES.
City councilors targeted the Chief Win Company Limited (
They said the company showed disrespect to the government by turning a deaf ear to last week's warnings by the city government and city council that the company had to delay operations until it improved the facilities that had failed to meet public safety standards.
"How dare the company brazenly open the mall [on Sunday]? It was an act that has not only provoked the city government but also the city council," said KMT city councilor Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏).
Chief Win Company signed a five-year contract in October 1988 with the mall's owner, Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC), to operate the 1km mall that links the MRT's Taipei Railway Station stop with the Minsheng West Road stop.
The mall's formal opening was originally scheduled for last Friday but was delayed following an inspection Friday by DPP city councilors that discovered several shortcomings in the facilities.
Among the problems found were two sprinkler nozzles (out of some 1,000) that were not connected to water pipes, leading DPP councilor Lan Mei-chin (
That inspection lead the city council to pass a resolution the same day requesting the company stop any plans to open the shopping center and requesting the city government finish its safety inspections of the mall within three days.
City officials admitted that inspections by both the fire department and the public works bureau over the weekend revealed that the safety situation at the mall left a lot of room for improvement.
Although the company had fixed the two defective sprinkler-nozzles, said Ma, some of the mall's building partitions failed to meet fireproofing standards.
Despite the city's request that the mall's opening be delayed until the problems were fixed, Chief Win went ahead with its formal opening Sunday -- without the attendance of any city officials or councilors. Only 54 of the 98 shop spaces in the passageway have been rented so far and not all the shops were opened for business on Sunday.
But city councilors are still outraged. In addition to the safety issues, they are unhappy with the city government for allowing the shops to open on a "trial basis" even before city officials began their safety inspections. They urged the city government to take serious measures to punish Chief Win.
"After all, what we care about is the safety of the city's 2.65 million population," Lan said.
In addition to the NT$150,000 fine imposed yesterday, Ma said the TRTC had decided to issue a daily punitive fine of NT$11,500 -- or 1 percent of the monthly rental for the mall -- to Chief Win for violating its contract.
But city councilors said the measures taken by Ma were not enough.
They said the mayor should investigate whether any city officials might be held responsible for failing to discover the shortcomings in the mall's facilities in advance of the opening.
Steven Chen (
Still, city councilors are worried.
"What if there is a fire during the Chinese New Year holidays? Without a satisfactory solution, how can the public's mind be put at ease to enjoy the New Year?" said DPP city councilor Chen Hsiu-hui (
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