Premier Wu Den-yih proposed Monday that an old land reclamation project be reactivated in Kaohsiung City using gravel and soil from Typhoon Morakot. Wu said the project, known as Nanhsing or Southern Star Plan, was broached by former Kaohsiung Mayor Su Nan-cheng more than 20 years ago and also promoted while he was mayor, but had been talked about less in recent years. The Kaohsiung City government, which has been controlled by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party since Wu lost his mayoral re-election bid in 1998, said in a statement, however, that the city has been carrying out a land reclamation project in the vicinity of the old project under a different name over the past decade. 'The Nanhsing project has been superceded by the Dalinpu land reclamation project, ' the statement said, but the city noted that it would be pleased to see an expansion of the project with support and assistance from the central government. Over the past decade, the statement said, the city government has been working on the Dalinpu reclamation project as part of its efforts to protect the city's coastline and resolve the construction industry waste problem. 'So far, 170 hectares of land have been reclaimed, but there is still ample room to reach the target of expanding the stretch to 250 hectares by 2011,' the statement said. Meanwhile, the statement said the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is also carrying out a land reclamation project in the Siaogang offshore area. Noting that the Siaogang project covers an area of about 300 hectares, the statement said the region is home to the Kaohsiung Harbor Intercontinental Container Center. Part of the reclaimed land has been used to relocate Hungmaogang village and for Yangming Marine Corp.'s construction of container wharves, the statement said. Typhoon Morakot pummeled southern Taiwan with strong winds and torrential rains that triggered the worst flooding and landslides in the country in half a century. The Gaoping River in the Kaohsiung area has been seriously blocked by silt, soil, rocks, driftwood and debris brought by the devastating typhoon. As the river's estuary is close to the Dalinpu or Nanhsing reclamation project site, the statement said the city government welcomes the central government's plan to expand the reclamation project using gravel brought by Morakot. As the development of Kaohsiung has been restricted by its limited land acreage, the statement said, the proposed expansion of Nanhsing project will be able to help attract more investment to the city, the second largest in Taiwan after Taipei. The statement further said the Dalinpu project's 170 hectares of reclaimed land will be used by the warehousing and logistics sectors and as a yacht industry center. 