The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) has concluded that revising the enforcement decree of the Parks and Green Areas Act — floated as one way to restart Seoul's Namsan gondola project — would require restarting the entire process from the public notice stage, Sedaily has learned. With construction suspended for about two years since October 2024, the revision process, which had already cleared public notice last year, has also been stalled for more than a year, effectively returning the matter to square one. The combination of the construction halt and the delayed decree revision is clouding the outlook for when the project can get back on track.
According to reporting by Seoul Economic Daily on the 22nd, the ministry's position is that pursuing the revision would require going through the full amendment process from the beginning, including repeating the public notice conducted last year. A ministry official said, "More than a year has passed since the public notice closed, and opinions at the time were sharply divided for and against." The official added, "To pursue the revision, we would have to repeat the procedures, including the public notice, so it is difficult to move ahead immediately."
The Seoul Metropolitan Government had pushed the gondola project to widen transport options for residents and tourists beyond existing buses and cable cars, and to improve access to Namsan for people with limited mobility, including wheelchair and stroller users. But construction was halted in October 2024 after the court granted an injunction request filed in a lawsuit brought by Korea Ropeway Industry and others against the city, seeking to overturn its urban management plan decision. The city lost at the first trial in December last year and lost again on appeal on the 17th of this month, and is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Separately from the litigation, the city has pursued the decree revision as a way to get the project moving again. The current decree in principle caps the height of structures in urban natural park zones at 12 meters. The city judges that easing the cap would allow construction to proceed without reclassifying the project site as an urban planning facility park, which is otherwise needed to install gondola pylons taller than 12 meters.
The city and the ministry held 10 rounds of consultations on the revision starting last year. After the city petitioned the Office for Government Policy Coordination for regulatory relief in March last year, the ministry partly accepted the request and in June issued public notice of a proposed decree revision that would ease the height cap under certain conditions.
The proposal was aimed at fixing a problem in which facilities requiring a certain height — such as wildfire watchtowers, wireless relay installations, and disaster warning and guidance facilities — were all subject to the same restriction. It would ease the current height rules that had surfaced in the course of installing disaster-prevention and safety facilities in urban natural park zones, and if enacted, it could also apply to the installation of gondola pylons. But no follow-up steps have been taken in the more than a year since the public notice closed on July 21 last year.
The ministry cites the sharply divided opinions submitted during the public notice as the reason the follow-up steps stalled. With considerable time having passed since the notice closed, the ministry says it is difficult to simply resume the process where it left off. As a result, pursuing the revision would require starting the related procedures over from the public notice. The city, which had gone through 10 rounds of consultations with the ministry and completed the public notice, now faces a situation in which the follow-up steps have been suspended and the revision process must begin again.
If the revision process drags on again, the timing for resuming the gondola project could also become uncertain. The city had originally planned to finish construction in November last year, conduct test runs early this year and begin regular service this spring. But with construction halted for about two years, the opening date is now hard to pin down. Progress currently stands at about 15%, and the city estimates that roughly 11 billion won would be left as sunk costs if the project were scrapped entirely.
The longer construction remains suspended, the more additional costs, such as indirect expenses, accumulate. Beyond the funds already spent, the structure of the project means costs for maintaining and managing the site during the suspension continue until work resumes. A delayed restart also pushes back the intended benefits of the gondola in improving mobility for residents and tourists visiting Namsan.
The city says the longer the revision is delayed, the harder it becomes to deliver on the project's original purpose of widening transport options at Namsan and improving access for people with limited mobility. A city official said, "With construction suspended for a long period, costs such as indirect expenses keep accruing and the inconvenience to residents has not been resolved." The official added, "This is a matter that went through thorough consultations with the ministry and completed the public notice, so it is hard to accept a situation where we have to repeat procedures we have already gone through."
Experts say the authorities need to weigh the opposing views fully while also making a decision that prevents the project from drifting indefinitely. Han Bong-ho, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Seoul, said, "It is only natural to fully review the arguments for and against in line with the law and procedures, but it is not desirable for the government to leave the project adrift for a long time without reaching a conclusion." He stressed, "To widen residents' transport options and ease the inconvenience of using Namsan, the government should stop putting off a decision and move quickly through the necessary procedures."
