The New Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems yesterday urged the Executive Yuan to approve a proposed MRT line connecting Sijhih District (汐止) and Taipei’s Donghu (東湖) area to get the project moving.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) earlier in the day visited Sijhih to hear a report on plans for the line.
While there, he thanked former minister of transportation and communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) for facilitating the plan and incumbent minister Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) for taking over the project.
Photo: CNA
“Thanks to the understanding and cooperation of the mayors of Taipei, New Taipei City and Keelung, we have made some progress today,” he said.
The department said in a news release yesterday that the transport ministry preliminarily approved the plan for the Sijhih-Donghu Line in March and the city government submitted a revised plan in May to the Executive Yuan for review.
The New Taipei City Government has allocated a budget of NT$20.5 billion (US$684.47 million), including NT$2.9 billion which should be paid back by the Taipei City Government, while the central government is to provide NT$5.8 billion for the project, it said.
The line can improve transportation problems in Keelung, and share stations and the Shekou terminal with the Keelung MRT Line, it said, adding that the government hoped the Cabinet could approve the plan as soon as possible.
Lin, who is the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate for New Taipei City mayor, on Facebook yesterday thanked the premier for announcing in February that the government would prioritize the construction of the Sijhih-Donghu Line.
Sijhih is an important intersection connecting Keelung and Taipei, he said, adding that local residents and commuters all suffer from the postponement of the line’s construction.
While the originally proposed MRT Minsheng-Sijhih Line was postponed for years, as the Taipei City Government prioritized the Metro circular line, the Sijhih-Donghu Line made no progress., he said.
While serving as transport minister, he found that the overlap between the Keelung MRT Line and the Minsheng-Sijhih Line made it difficult for all parties involved to reach a consensus, he said.
He thus established a communication platform in 2020, inviting Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Keelung Mayor Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) to meet and discuss the project, he added.
The efforts resulted in the integration of the east side of the Minsheng-Sijhih Line — which has been named the Sijhih-Donghu Line — and the Keelung MRT Line, he said, adding that this would benefit nearly 1 million residents in Keelung, Sijhih and Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) district.
The planned Sijhih-Donghu Line can connect the Wenhu Line (文湖線) and Bannan Line (板南線) to further facilitate transportation in the Taipei metropolitan area, as well as stimulate the development of Keelung and Sijhih, he added.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to