Taiwan's costly high-speed railway, a major north-south transport route, may be decommissioned within 10 years if earth sinking in central Taiwan continue, said a senior infrastructure official on Tuesday.

The earth under the railway's sections in Yunlin and Changhua counties has been sinking time and again and at the worst spot it continues to sink seven to eight centimeters annually, said Lee Hong-yuan, head of Taiwan's public construction department.

If the situation continues, the railway's maximum operation period will be 10 years and, if the situation worsens, it could even be shorter, he said.

The authorities attributed the sinking to overuse of underground water.

Earth sinking has been detected in an area of 1,400 square kilometers, which not only threatens the operation of railway but also agriculture and other infrastructure facilities, Lee said.

The high-speed railway, linking Taipei and Kaohsiung, was put into operation in 2007 with an investment of 500 billion New Taiwan dollars (17.6 billion U.S. dollars).

According to Lee, the island's public construction, water conservation and industry departments have been investigating the problem and will work out a plan to rearrange water resources in the two counties within two months.

Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation finished a project to adjust the supporting facilities of the railway in April and has been working to reinforce its foundation, said a report from China Times, a local daily.

According to the island's water conservation department, a reservoir in Yunlin County will provide about 200 million tonnes of water after being put into use in 2014. The move will allow the two counties to stop extracting underground water.

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