The Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) yesterday rebutted media reports that it would declare bankruptcy in June.
At a press conference in Kaohsiung, KRTC president Liu San-chi (劉三錡) dismissed a report in this week’s issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine that said Liu would announce during its annual shareholders’ meeting in June that the company was bankrupt.
Next said KRTC had debts of more than NT$5 billion (US$157.6 million), or more than half of its capital of NT$10 billion
The report said Liu would ask the city government to take over the company at a cost of NT$25.5 billion, as stated in the city government’s build-operate-transfer contract with KRTC.
Dismissing the report, Liu said its assets of NT$42.8 billion continued to outweigh its liabilities, at NT$37.7 billion.
He said he would only report at the shareholders’ meeting that KRTC’s deficit had exceeded half of the company’s capital as required by law, Liu said.
On hearing about the report, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) immediately voiced her concerns to Chang Chia-chu (張家祝), chairman of China Steel Co — KRTC’s biggest shareholder, the city government said.
The chairman told the mayor that the company would continue its operations and would not go bankrupt, the city government said.
KRTC mass rapid transit (MRT) system commenced operations two years ago, but the company is still in the red because of low passenger volume.
Liu blamed the city’s Bureau of Mass Rapid Transit for the story, saying someone from the bureau was feeding the magazine wrong information in a bid to have him replaced.
Bureau of Mass Rapid Transit Director-General Chen Kai-ling (陳凱凌) dismissed the allegations.
In other news, the city government yesterday began to invite proposals from international architects for the nation’s first oceanic culture and pop music center.
The center will be built on Kaohsiung Harbor piers 11 to 15.
Yang Ming-chou (楊明州), deputy director-general of the city’s Public Works Bureau, told a press conference in Taipei that the city hoped to build an international landmark.
The total budget for the 11.89-hectare project is set at NT$4.3 billion and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015, Yang said.
The project will include an indoor hall with at least 3,500 seats and another outdoor venue with 12,000 seats, Yang said.
More information is available on www.kpop.com.tw.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS