The Railway Bureau yesterday began demolition of the last three homes standing in the way of a railway relocation project in Tainan, giving the families no choice but to leave the sites.
A home in East District (東) owned by Chen Chih-hsiao (陳致曉) was cordoned off at about 5am and the demolition began an hour later, after Chen’s elderly parents, his sisters, and several protesters were forced to vacate the property.
In North District (北), two houses owned by Huang Chun-hsiang (黃春香) were knocked down at about 7am, as several protesters were forced off the properties before the work started.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
The demolition of the three properties by the bureau’s central engineering office brought an end to a long standoff between homeowners and the local government over the project that is to relocate part of the Tainan railway line underground.
The project was initiated in 1993 and approved in 2009 by then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Work began in 2012, when Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) was Tainan mayor.
The construction of the new underground rail segment required the demolition of 340 properties, a plan that was opposed by 121 of the homeowners.
Eventually, all except six of them yielded.
The city government began demolition of those six homes in June, forcing the families to vacate.
Huang and Chen were the last two holdouts.
Chen described the forced evacuation as “shameless.”
“First, the city government refused to hold negotiations with us, as we had requested to avoid demolition, then it suddenly decided to start the demolition during the negotiations,” Chen said. “I can only say that I had underestimated the shamelessness of the Democratic Progressive Party.”
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said it was time to end the standoff, because the city residents want the project completed as soon as possible to avoid accidents, injuries and train delays.
The property owners would receive the best possible compensation, he said.
The rail relocation project was scheduled to be completed in 2024, but the date was pushed back to 2026 due to delays caused by protests and confrontations with some of the homeowners.
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