Today and tomorrow mark the completion of two major transportation construction projects -- the Hengchun Wuliting Airport in Pingtung County and the second north-south freeway.
The completion of the projects comes just days before the Lunar New Year, traditionally the nation's longest and most important holiday, and is expected to meet extra travel demand.
The Hengchun Wuliting Airport, the nation's 18th airport, will be officially opened today by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
However, airlines will not begin operating regular passenger services until tomorrow. Three airlines will offer services to Hengchun.
Beginning tomorrow, UNI Airways and Mandarin Airlines will fly one daily return service between Taipei and Hengchun and between Taichung and Hengchun.
Trans Asia Airways will also provide a return flight from Taipei once daily.
The airport commenced construction in July 2000, and was part of a program to boost tourism in the nation's south. It cost NT$530 billion.
Direct flights to Wuliting Airport will cut the travel time between Taipei and the adjacent resort area of Kenting by at least two-and-a-half hours, officials said.
Responding to allegations that the airport facility was being opened prematurely and that safety was being compromised, Civil Aeronautics Administration director general Billy Chang (
He added that the administration's testing and licensing process was in accordance with standards set down by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Fire safety inspections had also been performed, he said.
The three airlines servicing the airport reported that ticket bookings for the first few days of the airport's operation had been less than ideal, though flights for the Lunar New Year period were selling well.
FREEWAY
The opening ceremony for Freeway No. 3, the nation's second north-south freeway, will take place tomorrow. President Chen will open the entire length of Freeway No. 3 to regular traffic.
Construction on the freeway began in 1987 in the Taipei area. The northern section was completed in 1997, and by 2000 segments of the southern section of the freeway were also open to traffic.
The southernmost section of the freeway, extending from the Pingtung City exit at Linluo (
The middle section, to be opened tomorrow, continues from Lungching Township (
The launch of this 19km middle section, which is expected to ease congestion in the Taichung area, will mark the completion of the entire length of the freeway, as well as completion of the west coast freeway system.
The 432km freeway cost more than NT$458 billion to build and includes 11 toll stations and seven rest areas. Due to the hilly or populated areas through which the freeway travels, bridges and elevated road account for an estimated 40 percent of the length of the freeway.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS