Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday the government was set to allocate a budget of NT$40 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the construction of a new mountain highway connecting Suao in the northeast and Hualien in the east.
The statement followed a decision by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications late last month to scrap a controversial Suhua Expressway project and instead propose building a less ambitious mountain highway that may intersect with parts of the existing highway.
The government will tender work on the proposed highway by the end of the year after the project passes an environmental impact assessment, while some latitude will be kept for future upgrades, he said.
PHOTO: YANG YI-MIN, TAIPEI TIMES
In his capacity as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) solicited grassroots opinion on the matter on Sunday while campaigning in Hualien County for Wang Ting-sheng (王廷升), the KMT candidate in an upcoming legislative by-election.
He relayed grassroots calls in favor of the mountain highway at the weekly coordination meeting attended by Ma and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), the heads of the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan and the KMT.
Wu said in the meeting that an additional NT$1.8 billion would be allocated to improve the Suao-Hualien Highway that cuts through coastal cliffs and is vulnerable to landslides.
Improving transportation links between the two areas on the east coast has long stirred controversy.
An expensive expressway was proposed more than a decade ago but has faced strong opposition from environmental experts and activists who said it would destroy the flora, fauna and ecological balance in the area.
With many unconvinced that simply repairing the highway would solve Hualien’s transportation woes, the mountain highway was proposed as a compromise.
At present, Hualien County can be accessed from the north by the mostly single lane Suao-Hualien Highway and from the west by a windy road that cuts through the central mountains.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS