The Taipei City Government yesterday said it would publish a map showing areas in Taipei where people are susceptible to being hit by tiles falling from old buildings.
Taipei Construction Management Office Director Chen Huang-cheng (陳煌城) made the promise during a question-and-answer session with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Wang Chih-ping (汪志冰).
Wang said that statistics compiled by the office indicate that about 3,800 buildings in the city need to be evaluated on risks of falling tiles.
No improvements had been made to 77 buildings determined by the city government as prone to falling tiles, Wang added.
The city has allocated NT$20 million (US$615,195) to subsidize the hiring of architects to assess building safety, with each building eligible for a subsidy of between NT$20,000 and NT$40,000, she said, adding that it would take at least six years to finish inspecting all 3,800 buildings.
Furthermore, a NT$30 million grant, set aside from the city’s second reserve fund to subsidize renovation of building facades, had a poor uptake rate, with the amount of money requested totaling about NT$3.4 million last year, and only about NT$840,000 so far this year, she said.
A total of 95 buildings received the subsidy for improving their facades last year, while only 24 buildings have been covered by the fund so far this year, indicating that the office had not done enough to promote policies to prevent falling tiles, she said.
Wang recommended a better integration of the two subsidies. She suggested referring people who had received grants toward inspection fees and subsequently found their buildings were unsafe to the subsidies for revamping building facades.
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