CHINA
DEC.
CBUSINESS & TRADE
POST
13-4H-
Eise
234
Rail electrification will cut travelling time
The Taiwan Provincial Government has planned to spend NT$12.1 billion (US$318.4 million) for the electrification of, the western trunk line railroad.
A TPG spokesman said the Executive Yuan is expected to approve the project soon.
He said under the govern the remaining US$96.4 million. the open tender for the rail- ment plan, US$222 million of The government spokesman road electrification project. The the fund will come from for- said both American and Brit- bids will be opened soon, he eign banks in the form of loans, ish electric engineering corn- said. The government itself will raise panies have sent their bids for
Rail Electrification To Cost NT$12.1 B.
The Railway Electrification Project is to cost NTS12.1 bil- lion, a spokesman for the Tai- wan Provincial Government (TPG) said yesterday.
The budget is pending before the Executive Yuan (Cabinet), the TPG spokesman said.
Of the total budget, suc- ✔cessful foreign bidders will help secure NTS10 billion as loans from international banks; and the
remaining NTS2.1
CHINA NEWS
billion will come from the TPG itself, the spokesman said.
The TPG is planning to sell all its unused land along the railways to repay foreign loans.
the
Starting from Fiscal 1974, all revenues obtained from its railway services will also be used for that purpose only, the spokesman said.
Construction work of the project is scheduled to start by June next year and be com- pleted in 1979, he said.
According to informed sources, the American govern- mient is exercising pressures оп the Chinese government to award the bid to General Electric (GE).
Reports reaching here from į Washingion said that U.S. Secretary of Commerce Fre- derick Dent has asked the Chinese government to give favorable consideration to GE.
Dent's request was sent back by Ambassador James C.H. Shen last Dec. 7.
U.S. Mc- also
The reports said that Ambassador Walter P. Conaughy in Taipei had been instructed to help GE get the bid.
The other competitor is General Electric Company (GEC), of the United King- dom.
GEC is reportedly making better offers than its Ameri- can competitors.
-
The successful bidder will help secure loans from foreign banks, he added.
Construction work will start before next June and the whole project is expected to be com- pleted in five years.
Taiwan's western trunk line railroad, totaling some 450 kilo- meters, links Keelung in the north to Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The project will be completed in two stages, with each taking more than two years.
The electrification project will shorten the traveling time. At present it takes four hours and 45 minutes for the Kuang flwa express train to cover the 400 kilometers between Taipei and Kachsiung.
It will take three hours and 50 minutes for the Taipei-Kao- hsiung trip aboard the same express train upon the compib- tion of the project.
After the electrification. a locomotive will be able to carry 15 passenger cars instead of the nine to 12 cars at present.
Without using coal or oil as fuel. railroad electrification also helps relieve air pollution.