Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) has ordered Cabinet officials to speed up the Huaguang Community (華光社區) development in Taipei, because he has decided that the tender process for the first stage of construction must be completed by June next year, Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said yesterday.
Cheng said that Jiang issued the directive at a meeting held with Cabinet officials to discuss the first stage of the development plan that is to involve 2.8 hectares of the original Huaguang Community, which occupies a total of about 10.5 hectares of prime property in central Taipei.
The first stage of the plan is expected to attract NT$3.7 billion (US$125.89 million) in investments from the private sector and generate NT$33.2 billion in economic benefits, Cheng said.
Located in close proximity to National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Yongkang Street, one of Taipei’s top tourist destinations, at the juncture of Da-an District (大安) and Zhongzheng District (中正), the Huaguang Community was designated by the Executive Yuan as part of its urban renewal project.
For decades, the community was home to families who lived there for generations since the Japanese colonial era, families who retreated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) from China to Taiwan in 1949, and the poor and disadvantaged who moved from villages in the countryside to Taipei to seeking a better life in the 1950s and 1960s.
The government initially planned to develop the community on the model of New York’s Wall Street, but last year decided to remodel the area into a “Roppongi District” — a district in Tokyo famed for its nightclubs.
However, that idea was dropped after a proposal was put forward this year that the former air force headquarters on Renai Rd be turned into a Taiwanese version of Roppongi.
The forced eviction of families and demolition of the Huaguang Community, which began a few years ago and was finished earlier this year, was one of the most controversial land expropriation cases in recent years.
In response to waves of public protests, approximate 1.8 hectares in the original community was marked by the government as a historical site worthy of preservation.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS