The Taipei City Government has prepared emergency power supplies at the Summer Universiade sports venues, so that the Games will not be affected by a sudden outage, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday when asked about the nationwide blackout on Tuesday.
Ko was in the city’s Wanhua District (萬華) in front of Longshan Temple (龍山寺) yesterday afternoon to preside over the passing of the Universiade flame.
The mayor passed the torch to Wang Hui-jen (王惠珍), the first Taiwanese Universiade gold medalist from Taiwan, who was to carry it to Zhongshan Hall yesterday, and from the MRT Xinbeitou Station (新北投車站) to the Taipei Municipal Stadium to light up the cauldron today.
Photo: Lin Yueh-fu, Taipei Times
The Universiade flame had passed through Italy’s Turin and Naples, Bangkok, South Korea’s Daegu and the nation’s 21 counties as well as Taipei’s 12 districts, Ko said.
It will pass along two routes representing the city’s history and culture in the last two days before reaching the stadium, he said.
The Games are to take place from Saturday to Aug. 30.
Asked whether he is worried that a power outage might affect the Universiade, Ko said emergency power supplies are in place at all venues.
The city government signed a contract with a supplier of emergency diesel generators that will also provide stand-by personnel ready to start and operate the generators in cases of emergency, so the venues will not be affected by power outages, he said.
“There was a blackout at [two Universiade venues] for 30 minutes [on Tuesday], because stand-by personnel had not yet been assigned at the venues,” he said.
“Of course, we hope Taiwan Power Co does not cause any more power outages, but if it occurs again we have backup emergency diesel generators,” he added.
In related news, the so-called “800 warriors” — veterans who protested against pension reform — yesterday said they would not protest at the Universiade venues.
The “800 warriors” issued a press release, saying that “together with all citizens of Taiwan, we open our arms and extend our hospitality to welcome all athletes and distinguished guests from all over the world,” and that “we do not intend to disrupt the games in any way.”
On Tuesday, several pro-Taiwan independence organizations announced that they plan to carry flags and banners to show the world “Taiwan is not Chinese Taipei” at the Universiade venues.
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