Court rules against abolition of tolls on controversial Han River bridge
This file photo shows the toll gate of the Ilsan Grand Bridge that connects Gimpo and Goyang, both west of Seoul, over the Han River. YonhapThe provincial government of Gyeonggi, which surrounds Seoul, lost a legal battle Wednesday to make a Han River bridge toll-free.The Gyeonggi government has pushed to abolish tolls on the Ilsan Grand Bridge, which connects the province's Gimpo and Goyang cities, and is the only bridge collecting tolls among 28 bridges on the Han River that runs through Seoul and the province into the Yellow Sea.Passenger cars, for instance, have to pay a toll of 1,200 won (a little less than one U.S. dollar) to cross the 1.84-km-long bridge built in May 2008.Lee Jae-myung, chair of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, declared the bridge toll-free for the sake of "public interests" before resigning as Gyeonggi governor in October last year, and his successor, Kim Dong-yeon of the same party, also promised free passage on the bridge ahead of the June 1 local elections.But Ilsan Grand Bridge, the operator of the bridge owned by the National Pension Servic
Nov 9, 2022
