Taiwan Premier Jian Yi-huah has announced that a newly-created assembly of government and industry officials is set to investigate how pipeline monitoring through Taiwan can be improved. This special assembly comes in the wake of deadly natural gas explosions that ripped through southern Taiwan and was caused 267 injuries and 25 deaths. 

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According to reports by Taiwan Today, Premier Jiang Yi-huah is actively investigating the cause of the tragic natural gas explosions which left scores dead and injured. As the clean-up from the blast continues, Jiang Yi-huah has been actively assembling a 10-member Cabinet group that will soon become the central monitoring system for the nation's industrial pipelines. Experts in chemical engineering, disaster control, fire safety and mechanics have been enlisted to oversee pipelines to ensure that there is not a repeat of the blast in late-July in southern Taiwan.

During a recent inter-ministerial meeting, the premier remarked on the importance of this collaborative effort that is being managed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and private corporations.

"Pipelines running through sensitive zones will be recommended to relocate as a way of ensuring such disasters as the Kaohsiung explosions never occur again in Taiwan," he said.

Senior-level Cabinet officials have indicated that the majority of Taiwan's current industrial pipelines are located within industrial zones but there are zones in Kaohsiung and Taoyuan County which pass through heavily-populated areas and pose a risk for another catastrophe. Cabinet spokesman Sun Lih-chyun suggested that creating new laws would not necessarily solve any problems that would more likely be solved using other remedies. "As there are already laws and regulations governing the establishment of pipelines, the government will not devise additional laws. In addition, information regarding the national pipeline grid will not be made public as it concerns national security," he said.

The data that will be compiled by this special Cabinet-level task force will be used by officials who hope to determine whether to incorporate all local pipeline networks under one conglomerate that would be under control by the government.