Go to contents

Kimpo reclaimed land to become eco-city

Posted July. 13, 2000 12:40,   

한국어

The Kimpo reclaimed land in Inchon is expected to turn into an eco city with a total population of 80,000 to 100,000.

The projected city to be built in the reclaimed land of 16.07 million square meters will function both as an agricultural village and an international business city as well, according to a master plan drafted by the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS) on Thursday.

Yet, the plan is triggering a fierce opposition of environmental organizations, who claim that it is most likely to destroy the ecosystem, causing a concentration of population into the metropolitan area and the shortage of farming land.

KRIHS officials called for development stages by stage with the first stage to focus on establishing an agricultural infrastructure and the preparation of residential land.

The second would involve the development of logistics, high-tech research, tourism, convention centers, and the third building an international business complex, a foreign residential complex and others.

Park Sang-U, a KRIHS researcher, said, ¡°We made it a principle in drafting the plan how to secure land for agricultural infrastructure, which was the very purpose when the reclaiming started. We also took into consideration how to meet the urgent demand for land, and made it the basic direction of development to build an eco city.¡±

The government worked out in 1978 a reclaiming plan to secure the basis on which the agricultural industry can stand on its own foot.

Dong Ah Construction began to reclaim the land in 1983 and finished the work in 1991.

The announcement of the construction of Inchon International Airport on Yongjong-do Island some 5 kilometers far from the reclaimed land earned it a nickname of ¡°land of gold¡± promising an enormous profit from its development. The size of the reclaimed land is five times that of Yoido.

Dong Ah Construction, then owner of the land, drafted a master plan to develop it as a large tourists¡¯ attraction and a high-tech international trade center and had asked the government to endorse, but disputes over a possible privilege to the company foiled the plan in the long run.

Eventually, the land was sold to the government for 633.5 billion won ($568 million) last August.

As the disputes were still arising over how to use the land, the government entrusted the KRIHS to draft a development plan last September.

Environmental organizations, including Inchon Federation of Environmental Movement, are opposing the development of the land, citing the destruction of ecosystem and shortage of farming land.

They claim that if half of the land is developed into a tourism complex or others, it will not only destroy the ecosystem, but give rise to a serious traffic problem due to the concentration of population.

Lee Hye-Gyong, 34, deputy secretary general of the Inchon Federation of Environmental Movement, said that an eco park and agricultural sites should be created on the reclaimed land.

The Inchon City Hall supports the development plan, in principle, but totally differs with the KRIHS about the latter¡¯s plan.

The city government said that the development plan to build logistics and international business facilities in the reclaimed land overlaps the plan to construct a logistics complex on Yongjong-do Island where Inchon International Airport is being built.