The city government is considering requiring design changes to the Taipei Dome construction project, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
“Frankly speaking, we think that changes are warranted to the design,” Ko said. “How to evacuate in the case of an emergency is something that concerns me greatly as mayor.”
He said that because traffic on Zhongxiao E Road, which borders the project site, is congested during rush hours, there are concerns about what would happen if 60,000 people had to be evacuated from the completed facility.
Photo: CNA
Ko said the city government was considering clearing some office space on Guangfu S Road to open up additional evacuation routes, adding that the city would have to thoroughly research potential changes to zoning and traffic flow before negotiating with Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), to which the city outsourced the project.
Any city government demands for design changes to the project could further complicate existing talks to renegotiate the project contract.
Ko said the city government has not yet laid out a clear position on whether royalties that the firm must pay to the city government should be raised because of design changes, which would affect Farglory’s bottom line.
Meanwhile, Ko said the city government is on weak legal ground compared with real-estate developer Radium Life Tech Co, though he expressed confidence that the firm would fall in line with city demands over the MeHAS City development project.
The firm has been accused of benefiting from allegedly forged cost estimates by city officials that were used to apportion profits for the joint development project, with Ko last month demanding that the firm fork over NT$7.6 billion (US$240.4 million), an estimate of how much the city has been short-charged.
On Monday, Ko said the company’s actions amounted to “eating human flesh with a knife and fork,” saying they were wrong even if nothing was done illegally.
“Because many actions are ‘legal,’ but not reasonable, if we fight on legal grounds, there is a high probability that the city will lose,” Ko said yesterday, adding that one major reason was that, unlike corporations, the city could not afford to hire the best lawyers and accountants.
However, Ko expressed confidence that the firm would get in line, because it was implicated in a “pile” of related cases that could give the city leverage over the firm.
He said the city government would consider entering into mediation with Radium Life Tech to resolve disputes over the MeHAS City project, but not on the core issue that the firm should compensate the city for the amount it is accused of owing.
‘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 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
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
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