Taoyuan International Airport Corp’s (TIAC) decision to extend the public tendering deadline for Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project by 45 days would not cause further construction delays, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
The deadline for the second phase of the bidding was previously set for Thursday next week, but as of Nov. 5, two interested bidders had submitted 1,582 requests for clarification of the contract terms, construction plans and bidding procedures, TIAC said on Wednesday.
“To ensure that the procurement contract is handled fairly and reasonably, we find it necessary to give interested bidders adequate time to review changes to the contract, the construction plans and other bidding documents,” TIAC said. “Given this, we’ve decided to extend the deadline until 10am on Jan. 18.”
On Aug. 21, TIAC chose two qualified bidders in the first phase, it said, adding that one bidder has brought a 42-member team of specialists to Taiwan to prepare for the second phase, while the other bidder brought a 28-member team.
Each team has been delayed by visa application procedures and the quarantine requirement in their review of the project documents, it added.
Lin was asked by reporters on the sidelines of the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee whether the extension would further delay construction, given that a lack of bidders already prompted the ministry to postpone the project’s completion until 2026.
“No, I don’t think so,” Lin said. “The two teams have many questions, for which both the Civil Aeronautics Administration and TIAC will need to prepare and provide translation. They will need about 45 days to finish all of the necessary work.”
One bidder is South Korea’s Samsung C&T Corp and Taiwan’s RSEA Engineering Corp, while the other bidder is the Taiwan branch of the Tokyo-based Taisei Corp and Taiwan’s Continental Engineering Co.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
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,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
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
RSS