14% of airport cost is imported material

A criticism has been raised concerning the indiscriminate use of imported high-priced lighting with costs upwards of US$1,000 per unit in the construction of the Inchon International Airport.

In the National Assembly's Committee for Construction and Transportation, Rep. Lee Yoon-Soo of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party read from an audit report submitted by the Inchon International Airport Construction.

"Of the total cost of building material for the passenger terminal of 670.5 billion won, the imported material accounted for 13.9% or about 93.1 billion won," Lee read from the report.

The breakdown of the cost of imported building material revealed that 21.1 billion won was spent for general material, 25 billion won for sewage treatment facilities, 8.3 billion won for boarding connectors, 19.8 billion won for communication facilities and 18.9 billion won for X-ray detectors.

Of the general materials, 564 units of lighting that cost more than US$1,000 each were included, accounting for 1.5 billion won. In addition, the audit showed spending of 1.2 billion won for marble tiles, 2 billion won for carpets, 2.8 billion won for wood flooring and 3.2 billion won for the revolving and automatic doors.