Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsai Duei (
"I think this is a misunderstanding," Tsai said. "We said in our assessment report that the railway transportation system along the East Coast would exceed its carrying capacity in the next 20 years. We cannot wait until then to plan for the construction of the Suhua Freeway, which will take at least 10 years to build."
Tsai said yesterday that the Executive Yuan had asked his ministry to re-perform its environmental variation analyses for the construction that were conducted last year. The analyses have been completed and were submitted to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for review last week.
After incorporating the evaluations from the EPA, the entire project would still have to be approved by the Executive Yuan, he said.
The assessment report would present three possible policy directions for transportation on the East Coast, including maintaining the status quo, or developing the region's industries and expanding the capacity of its transportation network, Tsai said.
The latter proposal, once it was adopted, would enable the construction of the Suhua Freeway to proceed as planned, he said.
However, before settling on a final direction, the ministry would continue to strengthen the functions of the existing transportation systems, including electrifying the North Link Railway System, expanding the infrastructure of airports in Hualien and Taitung, increasing the number of short-distance commuter trains along the east coast and improving the road conditions on Provincial Highway No. 9, Tsai said.
Liu Chug-chun (劉佳鈞), the deputy director of the EPA's planning division, said the administration was legally bound to submit the review within 50 days.
However, the processing might take longer if the ministry were asked to turn in supplementary information, he said.
Tsai made his remarks following a report published yesterday in the Chinese-language China Times, which said the Suhua Freeway would not be built within 20 years.
According to the story, the ministry indicated that unless the nation's industries relocate to the East Coast on a large scale, it was unnecessary to build the freeway. Nor was it necessary to build a straight-line railway connecting Taipei County with Ilan County, the newspaper said.
The Suhua Freeway was one of the Ten New Infrastructure Projects the Executive Yuan announced in 2003. The project was temporarily suspended by former premier Yu Shyi-kun on the grounds that the government needed to listen more to -- and respect -- the opinions of local residents.
The Suhua Freeway's construction plans conditionally passed an EPA environmental impact assessment in 2000. The project, however, was then postponed for more than three years. The transportation ministry was then required by law to turn in environmental variation analyses on the route, which failed to pass the EPA's review four times.
Last year, environmental protection advocates requested that the government conduct a more comprehensive evaluation of all the transportation systems on the East Coast to determine whether building the freeway was necessary.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
RSS