Gyeongin Canal Construction Project Has Been Canceled

The Government decided to cancel the Gyeongin Canal construction plan, which had caused adverse criticism of environmental damages and economical propriety.

It has been the second time that a government-run project has been canceled because of objections of civil organizations following the Donggang River Dam project in Yeongwol, Gangwon, so the upcoming government-run projects seem to have similar problems.

The Construction and Transportation Ministry announced that it would accept the request of stopping the Gyeongin Canal Project by the Presidential Transition Committee by saying, “The Committee has thoroughly checked and decided, so we respect that.”

For the final decision and following arrangements, the Construction and Transportation Ministry would decide in cooperation with the Transition Committee.

However, they decided to continue the construction of the Gulpocheun River drainage as planned. The construction of Gulpochun River drainage is a project to widen the width of the Gulpocheon River to prevent the flooding damage in areas of Gangseo-Gu, Seoul, Gyeyang and Bupyeong-Gu, Inchon, and Bucheon and Kimpo Cities, Gyeonggi, which suffer from flooding every summer monsoon season because of their location lower than the water level of the Han River. Prior to that, the Transition Committee talked to the Construction and Transportation Ministry, Korea Development Institute (KDI), and civil organizations and investigated the related information, and as a result, it asked to stop the project because the profit in contrast to expense was 0.9 and it was not up to the standard of project propriety (1.0). The Transition Committee also pointed out that, if the project had been already started, it could have not stopped it although there was any doubt in the project propriety; however, this kind of habitual practices should be fixed. And in relation to this, it announced that it would find a way to separate the operation department and the propriety investigation department to raise the confidence level of the propriety investigation or environmental effect investigation. The Gyeongin Canal project is a construction to make a waterway of 100m wide in 18km section from Gaehwa-Dong, Gangseo-Gu, Seoul (Han River near the Hangju Grand Bridge) to Gyeongseo-Dong, Seo-Gu, Inchon (West Sea near Yeongjong Island) to make the container ships and pleasure boats can sail.

Jae-Seong Hwang Ki-Jeong Ko jsonhng@donga.com koh@donga.com