Kimpo’s New Town Development Plan

The Kimpo New Town Development Plan is beginning to surface.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced on Sunday it would implement its scheduled plan to develop new urban areas in order to supply the public with more houses. Under this development plan, Kimpo in Gyeonggi province will be designated as site of a residential land development plan in April, the Ministry said.

The sale of apartments in Kimpo is expected to begin in the first half of 2006, and people will move into the apartments in the first half of 2008.

The Construction and Transportation Ministry has already set up its specific plan. According to the development plan, the designation of residential land development plan sites, and the compensation for land and building are scheduled to be implemented in April of 2004 and in May and June of 2005 respectively. The construction is expected to start at the end of next year.

Kimpo New Town will range from Woonyang-dong to Janggi-dong, Yanghchon-myeon. It will have a total of 70,000 households with 65,000 apartment complexes and row houses, and 5,000 detached houses put together. It can accommodate 210,000 inhabitants.

Its estimated population density is 132 people per hectare; a relatively a small number compared with other existing new towns such as Ilsan, Bundang and Pyeongchon, whose population density is 176, 198, 329 people per hectare individually.

On the other hand, the rate of park and green land in all are about 28percent, higher than those of Bundang and Ilsan, which are 20 percent and 25 percent.

The government is said to be helping solve traffic jams during rush hour by opening the subway number 9 line from Gaehwa to Yangchon, and building two six-forked expressways.

“As the designation of residential land development plan sites, the development of Kimpo New Town will come to the fore. We will make Kimpo New Town environment-friendly,” the Construction and Transportation Ministry official said.

Cheol-Yong Lee lcy@donga.com