The Kaohsiung city government is planning two more lines for its mass rapid transit system, even though the system suffered a massive loss of NT$2.2 billion last year, a city government official said Tuesday. The Department of Rapid Transit official said that in order to build the system into a comprehensive public transport network, the department is planning yellow and brown lines, which will pass through bustling business, leisure and scenic districts in the city to end at Chengching Lake in Kaohsiung County. The official noted that the existing Red Line and Orange Line intersect each other at the Formosa Boulevard Station, and said the department believes this has not made it a comprehensive network. It has therefore appropriated NT$16 million this year to commission a consultancy company to plan the routes of the two proposed lines to facilitate the government's efforts to promote the system. Both lines will be above ground, in contrast to the two existing lines that mainly run underground, to save on construction costs. The yellow line, which will start at a major shopping mall at the heart of the Kaohsiung, will be 14.3 km and will cost an estimated NT$11.5 billion. The brown line will start from a wharf near Kaohsiung Harbor and end at Chengching Lake, a distance of 11.29 km. Its price tag is estimated at around NT$9 billion. Meanwhile, expansion plans for the existing two lines have been completed and submitted to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for review. The Red Line will be extended 9.8 km to Kaohsiung Science Park, while the Orange Line will be extended 14.04 km to neighboring Pingtung City, for a combined projected cost of NT$49.9 billion. The north-south Red Line and east-west Orange Line were inaugurated in March and September last year, respectively. Since their launch, system's finances have taken a heavy hit because of low passenger volume. In an effort to reduce the financial shortfall, the company has planned to increase passenger volume by 30 percent to 150,000 and to cut operating costs by 10 percent. The Kaohsiung MRT was constructed on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis at a total cost of NT$181.3 billion and covers a total of 42.7 km. 