Premier Wu Den-yih said Monday that the government is set to allocate a budget of NT$40 billion for the construction of a new mountain highway connecting Suao in northeastern Taiwan and Hualien in the east. The statement follows the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' decision in late December to scrap a controversial Su-Hua Expressway project and instead propose building a less ambitious mountain highway that may intersect with parts of the existing highway. The government will tender out work on the proposed highway by the end of this year after the project passes the necessary environmental impact assessment, while some latitude will be kept to upgrade it in the future, Wu said. President Ma Ying-jeou solicited grassroots opinion on the issue Sunday while campaigning in Hualien County for Wang Ting-sheng, the Kuomintang candidate in an upcoming legislative by-election, in his capacity as ruling Kuomintang chairman. He relayed the grassroots calls in favor of the mountain highway at the weekly coordination meeting attended by Ma and his deputy, Vice President Vincent Siew, the heads of the Executive and Legislative yuans and the ruling party. Wu said in the meeting that an additional NT$1.8 billion will be allocated for the purpose of improving the existing Suao-Hualien Highway that cuts through coastal cliffs and is vulnerable to landslides. Improving transportation links between the two cities on Taiwan's eastern coast has long stirred controversy. An expensive expressway was proposed more than a decade ago but has faced strong opposition from environmental experts and activists who believe that it would destroy the scenic beauty, flora, fauna and ecological balance in the area. With many unconvinced that simply repairing the existing highway would solve Hualien's transportation woes, the mountain highway was proposed as a compromise. At present, Hualien County can be accessed from the north by the mostly single lane Suao-Hualien Highway and from the west by a windy road that cuts through Taiwan's central mountains. 