Lawmakers yesterday demanded that government officials take responsibility for construction problems with Kaohsiung's mass rapid transit project that resulted in rapid subsidence on Sunday morning, forcing 100 people to be evacuated from their homes.
They also attacked Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (
PHOTO: HUANG HSIU-CHI, TAIPEI TIMES
Chinese-language reports yesterday quoted Hsieh as saying that the accident highlighted the urgent need to pass a special budget for a NT$500 billion, five-year infrastructure project.
Hsieh said that the construction company working on the city's MRT system had been afraid to hurry construction because of a lack of funding. As a result, geological factors had changed, leading to Sunday's accident, Hsieh said.
Legislators bristled at the suggestion it was their fault.
"Actually, if passing the special budget would allow the construction company to rush their work, then I'd have to say it's a good thing we haven't passed it yet -- otherwise, similar accidents would plague other sites as well," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Yu-ting (
People First Party Legislator Lee Hung-chun (
Under interrogation by Lee, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
Lin said the results of an investigation into the accident would be available in a month.
The accident occurred during the early hours of Sunday after drilling resulted in a surge of water and sand to rise toward the surface. As a result, the Yancheng MRT station and surrounding structures sank 20cm, leading to the evacuation of more than 100 people from nearby buildings.
NT$21 billion from the NT$500 billion special budget package has been set aside for the upcoming fiscal year to fund construction of Kaohsiung's MRT system, but legislators have yet to pass the bill.
Lin yesterday urged the legislators to pass the special budget package, warning that otherwise funding for the MRT system's construction would would run out by the end of the month.
The accident itself will likely cost a lot of money, with the Kaohsiung City Government giving NT$10,000 compensation to 73 families and daily subsistence subsidies of NT$500 to 253 people.
Reconstruction costs have yet to be calculated. A similar accident in 1994 near Linkou cost more than NT$500 million.
As of yesterday, the flooding of sand and water had subsided and construction workers planned to pump another 400 bags of cement into the affected area to fortify the site.
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