Taipei City councilors yesterday, during a marathon cross-party negotiation with city government officials, passed a NT$290 million (US$8.65 million) budget to tear down a Zhongxiao Bridge (忠孝橋) connection ramp near the Taipei Railway Station, while agreeing that several major budget requests and projects be put to a vote.
Experts said the project to demolish the 750m ramp on Zhongxiao W Road, scheduled to take place over the first eight days of the Lunar New Year holiday, would improve traffic flow near the railway station.
The budget was passed despite criticism that the Taipei Public Works Department missed a budget review for the demolition.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that with the Lunar New Year approaching, preparatory work for the work have been carried out, but demolition work has not begun.
Project contractor Huang Chang General Contractor Co dispatched construction vehicles to the site and fenced off an area of the bridge.
Reinforced steel was also sent to the site.
Meanwhile, officials and city councilors failed to reach a consensus on the city’s second reserve fund, for which Ko had requested a record-high NT$1.5 billion.
The Taipei City Council's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said it would seek to trim the fund to NT$950 million, despite Secretary-General Chen Yung-te’s (陳永德) claims that the caucus would be amenable to upping the ante to between NT$1.15 to NT$1.25 billion as long as Ko promised to use the increase for disaster-relief efforts.
The amount of funding would be decided by a vote today, councilors said.
Other proposals, such as plans to half the NT$2,000 monetary gift received annually by city government officials at Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival, and the budget for moving the Mitsui Warehouse to make space for other city government projects, are also to be voted on, councilors said.
City councilors were still in second-round negotiations over budget proposals tendered by the Taipei Department of Urban Development, which include 15 items related to the city’s public housing projects and the budget request for the 2050 Taipei Vision project, as of press time last night.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS