The Executive Yuan yesterday said that it is feasible to build a straight-line railway linking Taipei and Ilan with the build-operate-transfer (BOT) formula, contradicting a media report claiming that it is not.
"After talking with Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
During his two-day inspection trip to his hometown of Ilan County, Yu announced on Tuesday that the Cabinet is studying the possibility of building a straight-line railway linking Taipei County's Hsintien and Ilan County's Chiaohsi with the BOT formula.
Yu also expressed the government's plan to connect the straight-line railway with the Hsintien line of the mass rapid transit system.
A Chinese-language newspaper, however, claimed that an evaluation report conducted by the transportation ministry showed that the plan is not likely to take off because not many private companies would be interested in the not-so-lucrative project.
According to Lin Chia-lung, the idea of building the straight-line railway with the BOT method is one of the pledges made by President Chen Shui-bian (
It is designed to upgrade the competitiveness of the railway system in the face of the completion of the planned north-south high-speed rail system and expressway linking Taipei and Ilan.
The government hopes to begin the NT$59.4 billion, 13-year project in 2006. Once completed, the travel time between Taipei and Ilan is expected to be reduced from the current 70 minutes to between 18 and 25 minutes.
Before any straight-line railway project idea came to be, the transportation ministry had once earmarked NT$16.7 billion this year to procure 334 special trains to reduce the travel time between Taipei and eastern Taiwan. The budget, however, was frozen by the legislature.
Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr arrived in Taiwan last night to kick off his first visit to the country since beginning his second term earlier this year. After arriving at Taoyuan International Airport at around 6:30 pm, Whipps and his delegation were welcomed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). Speaking to gathered media, the Palauan leader said he was excited and honored to be back in Taiwan on his first state visit to Taiwan since he was sworn in this January. Among those traveling with Whipps is Minister of State Gustav N. Aitaro, Public Infrastructure
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At least three people died and more than a dozen were injured yesterday afternoon when a vehicle struck a group of pedestrians in New Taipei City’s Sansia District (三峽). The incident happened at about 4pm when a car rammed into pedestrians at an intersection near Bei Da Elementary School. Witnesses said the sedan, being driven at a high speed, ran a red light, knocking scooters out of the way and hitting students crossing the road before careening into a median near the intersection of Guocheng and Guoguang streets. The incident resulted in three deaths and 13 injuries, including the driver, a 78-year-old man
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