The New Taipei City (新北市) Government yesterday pledged to continue its plans to construct a Minsheng-Xizhi line of the Taipei mass rapid transit (MRT) system despite the plan being rejected by the central government.
The city government said it would provide further evidence of the plan’s viability.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications rejected the project on Feb. 16, saying the city government had failed to provide estimates of the external benefits of the MRT line, such as urban renewal, land development and increased revenue.
The city government will re-examine the project and try to raise its self-liquidating ratio by 2 to 3 percentage points from about 30 percent to meet the ministry’s requirements, acting commissioner of the city’s Transportation Bureau Simon Chao (趙紹廉) said.
“We will never give up on the Minsheng-Xizhi Line,” he said, adding that the project is a crucial part of New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) political platform.
It would be the first line to be built under the newly sworn-in Chu and is expected to begin at Dadaocheng Station beneath Minsheng West Road in Taipei City and extend beneath the Keelung River to Neihu District.
The total length of the line will be 17.52km, with 15 stations and one depot, to be built at a cost of NT$42.2 billion (US$1.44 billion).
During his mayoral election campaign last year, Chu proposed extending the MRT system by creating 10 new lines, including three circular routes.
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Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
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