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
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS