The bidding process for the proposed Taipei Twin Towers (雙子星) project is to be reopened, and would allow international firms to participate, the capital’s municipal government confirmed yesterday.
“I advocate reopening the bidding process, including opening it to international bids,” independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said. “If there are not any international firms willing to bid for a NT$70 billion [US$2.21 billion] project, there is definitely something wrong with the bidding process.”
He made his remarks in an interview with the Eastern Broadcasting Co’s (東森電視) This is It (關鍵時刻) talk show late on Wednesday night.
The Taipei Twin Towers project is one of the largest in Taipei’s history, with the eponymous towers intended to serve as an international gateway into the municipality to be constructed over the terminus of a future MRT line linking the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with Taipei Main Station.
Ko’s announcement that the bidding process would be reopened overturns the decision of former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who — about two months before leaving office last year — decided that the municipal government would construct the towers.
Hau’s decision followed a series of project setbacks that began when a major corruption scandal forced out the original contractor in 2013, with a second winning bidder forced out last year after being unable to meet municipal conditions for signing a contract.
When pressed for details about the capital’s plans for the project by his interviewer, Ko said that he still needed more time to consider the matter.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) said the municipal government is drafting plans for the bidding process, with Taipei City Government spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) saying that full details for the project’s future would be announced in March in conjunction with a 2050 Taipei plan for municipal development.
Meanwhile, the municipal government yesterday announced new plans to develop the area surrounding Taipei’s historic North Gate (北門), which lies adjacent to the Twin Towers project site.
The gate is on a traffic island inside of one of Taipei’s most complicated intersections, which requires pedestrians crossing Zhongxiao W Road to repeatedly “island-hop.”
New plans call for making the intersection more pedestrian-friendly by shifting Zhongxiao W Road north and constructing a square to join the North Gate to the southern “mainland.”
Lin said that the first phase of the project is set to begin by the end of the year.
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