A project to reconstruct a building in Taipei city that was toppled during the 921 Earthquake was completed yesterday, weeks ahead of the 10th anniversary of the disaster.
Former residents of the Tunghsing Building (東星大樓) gathered in the lobby of the reconstructed complex for a cocktail party yesterday, in anticipation of their return home.
However, the residents will have to wait three months before they can move in, as the paperwork has yet to be completed.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lin Chung-huan (林崇煥), director of the Urban Redevelopment Office at the Taipei City government, said that despite the many twists and turns in the reconstruction process, the city took many steps to facilitate the project.
The 12-story Tunghsing Building fell when a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck central Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999. Eighty-seven residents of the building were killed, 105 injured and more than 250 left homeless in the collapse. It was the only building in Taipei City to be completely destroyed by the earthquake, which was centered about 200km outside the city.
The Taipei City Government has since refused to admit responsibility for the collapse and had engaged in a legal battle with former residents.
The project, which did not start until 2004, was suspended in October 2006 as a result of a financial crisis faced by the contractor.
The project was taken over by another contractor in August last year, but it came to standstill again two months later because of a similar problem.
The building was completed by a third contractor, which took over the project in December.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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