The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is closing in on a solid construction plan for its proposed rail line which would link Taipei City with Ilan County.
The ministry's Railway Engineering Bureau has contracted a private engineering consultation firm to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the feasibility of building a direct line through the mountainous Beiyi area and of the development's impact on the environment, ministry officials said.
The feasibility and environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the BOT (build-operate-transfer) project in which private investors will be allowed to construct and operate the railway for a given period before handing it over to the government -- is expected to be available by the end of the year, the officials said.
Geological conditions, drilling capacity and protection of water resources are among the major points to be included in the EIA report, they said.
The Beiyi railway, which will be about 42km long, could be developed in two ways -- either from Taipei City's Nankang District to Chiaohsi township, Ilan County, or from Nankang to Chiaohsi via Toucheng, another township located nearer to the coast.
The railway would be built in 10 years with a budget of around NT$26.5 billion (US$790 million), the officials said.
The ministry began planning the project after Ilan residents appealed to the government for a direct rail line to help the county prosper, even though the highly publicized Beiyi freeway is 85 percent complete and scheduled to open by the end of 2005.
The Beiyi Freeway has been called one of the most challenging road projects in the world.
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