The Chiang Wei-shui Freeway continued to experience heavy traffic yesterday following the official opening of the Hsuehshan Tunnel on Thursday which has encouraged more motorists to use the road.
The Pinglin Traffic Control Center reported that after 7am the number of cars driving through the tunnel each hour exceeded 1,000.
By noon, over 10,000 cars, both northbound and southbound, had passed through the tunnel.
In addition, the Taiwan Area National Expressway Bureau continued to control the traffic flow on the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway by regulating the number of cars coming from the Formosa Freeway interchange at Nangang, causing the traffic on the latter to back up for 2km.
The National Highway Police Bureau also reported that a total of 66 tickets were issued on Friday for violations of driving safety regulations in the tunnel, 43 of which were for speeding offenses.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation and Communications Kuo Yao-chi (
"There is no change in anyone's position as of now," Kuo said.
Media reports suggested that Chiou would be forced to step down after failing to locate an appropriate jeep for Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and three other former premiers to use to drive through the tunnel during its opening ceremony.
Reports said it was the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) that managed to find a suitable jeep.
It took Su almost 15 minutes to start the stick-shift jeep, however, which turned into a gaffe broadcast nationwide. This angered Kuo, leading to her decision to replace Chiou, the reports added.
Chiou denied the reports yesterday, saying he has not handed in his resignation and does not have any plans for early retirement.
Kuo said yesterday she would not punish her staff for minor mistakes, but said she did ask Chiou to seek assistance from the DGH in finding an appropriate jeep earlier this week. Kuo later discovered that Chiou had not contacted the DGH for help.
While denying the reports, Kuo gave indications of dissatisfaction with Chiou's performance when she talked with the Taipei Times yesterday.
She said that Chiou did not appear to have a full grasp of the work on the tunnel whenever he was consulted.
"The credit for completing the Hsuehshan Tunnel should be given to people who have been working at the construction site all these years, not the expressway engineering bureau," she said, adding that the tunnel construction was nearly halted when she became minister in February.
Kuo added that the tunnel's construction workers had been under considerable pressure. Occupational hazards, questioning of the project, derision from legislators and the announcement of the delayed opening of the tunnel were all demoralizing, she said.
"[To them] it was like the construction of the tunnel would never end," she said.
Kuo noted that the Ministry will announce new management for some of the bureaus next month or in August.
Sources within the ministry have indicated that Chiou, along with the chief of the Bureau of High Speed Rail, Wu Fu-hsiang (吳福祥), and the chief of the Taiwan Area National Expressway Bureau, Chen Chien-yu (陳建宇), will be asked to leave their positions.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we