With Lele Lot and Longsing Lot, permanent housing quality is the priority, project time is never delayed

In August 2009, Typhoon Morakot caused severe damage in Kaohsiung City’s Shinkai Village, Liugui District and Chinhe Village, Taoyuan District.

In order to maintain the safety of affected civilians and village tribes, local residents had to be relocated. Lele Lot in Taoyuan District and Longsing Lot in Liugui District of Kaohsiung City were the final locations designated for construction of permanent housing. After many coordination meetings held by the Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council of the Executive Yuan (hereinafter referred to as The Reconstruction Council), the government has decided to initiate development by providing land, public facilities and infrastructure. Construction of permanent housing will be donated by the Dharma Drum Mountain Foundation.

In order to speed up the construction of the permanent housing, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Reconstruction Council, Dr. Chern Jenn-Chuan, and colleagues visited LeLe and Longsing this morning (13th) to inspect construction of the permanent housing; Chinhe Village Chairman of Taoyuan District Zeng Jiang Cing Shuei, Liugui District Shinkai Village Rebuilding Association Chairman Pan Sing Bei and Sia Jiou Jian were invited to attend. Zeng Jiang pointed out that construction quality shall not be substandard because construction has sped up; Pan stated: the effort of The Reconstruction Council is appreciated and we wish to have a community center in Longsing Lot. On the site, Deputy CEO Chern praised Sia for generously providing private land to allow road access and stated that with the government’s goal of creating sustainable communities, a community center is set to be on this construction site; many thanks for the efforts taken by associated parties on both construction sites. He also wished that the contractor would speed up construction with quality as the main priority, in order to let disaster-affected residents move into the completed permanent housing before the second anniversary of the incident.

Lele Lot rebuilding site is located in Taoyuan District with 9,291m² in area on government land; 20 households from the Bunun Tribe in Chinhe Village were scheduled to be resettled there, infrastructure building is currently in progress, and 5th May 2011 is scheduled as the date for permanent housing construction to commence. Longsing Lot rebuilding site is located in Liugui District with 5,900m² in area on government land; 17 households from Shinkai Village were scheduled to be resettled there, infrastructure building is currently in progress, and 10th May 2011 is scheduled as the date for permanent housing construction to commence.

Based on the scheduled commencement date of construction by the contractor hired by the Dharma Drum Mountain Foundation for both sites, it is unlikely to be completed before the end of June this year (2011). There are outstanding interface issues which remain; Kaohsiung City Government has had many coordination meetings with the Dharma Drum Mountain Foundation and has yet to reach common ground. In order meet the target completion date and avoid further delays caused by administration procedures, Deputy CEO Chern specifically instructed a handling unit to invite the Dharma Drum Mountain Foundation and related parties to a coordination meeting hosted by him personally on 15th May, intending to smoothly resolve problems.

Furthermore, Deputy CEO Chern visited the rebuilding site of the affected portion of Provincial Highway 133. Apart from encouraging the main operation unit to speed up, Chern also pointed out that overflow from the Laonong River would carry a substantial amount of shingles from upstream, raising safety concerns both for construction and residents; extreme care shall be taken, and precautions and emergency measures shall be in place and rehearsed. The Department of Infrastructure of the Reconstruction Council and the fund-approving Doctorate General of Highways shall supervise attentively, in order to move construction along schedule and speed up recovery of the nearby Bulao springs as well as local industries.