The improvement project of the incident-prone Suhua Highway will be expedited. In fear that the accelerated procedure will hamper the quality of the environmental evaluation, the environmental groups are suggesting the government to improve the existing eastern railway system, and to consider constructing marine transportation facilities so that the residents can have optional routes to get to their destination.

In the wake of severe damage to the Suao-Hualien Highway during Typhoon Megi, the government has decided to fast track the improvement project.

President Ma Ying-jeou recently said, at the earliest, that construction could begin before the end of the year, while the Ministry of Transportation and Communications also said that improvements would be completed by 2016 rather than 2017.

The status of the project hinges on environmental impact reviews, and the Environmental Protection Administration has moved up its second review meeting to next Monday.

As the EPA's first committee meeting took place just one week ago and the administration asked relevant departments during the meeting to submit 46 sets of documents by the end of the year, civic groups are extremely concerned about the turn of events and the impact they will have on the quality of the assessments.

The groups are also calling on the government to improve the area's railway system and construct marine transportation facilities so that Hualien residents can have more than one way to get home safely.

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