Gyeonggi-do to Continue Free Toll on Ilsan Bridge Until Verdict... Minimum Operating Costs to Be Paid

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has decided to continue toll-free access on Ilsan Bridge until the final court ruling is made. Instead, the province will prepay the Minimum Revenue Guarantee (MRG) from the fair compensation amount determined by the court to the Ilsan Bridge operator.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 3rd that this decision was made in response to the Suwon District Court's temporary suspension of the execution of the public interest disposition canceling the designation of the project operator until the main trial verdict.

Since it is common for suspension of execution requests to be accepted due to the nature of administrative dispositions, the province has been preparing a plan for continuous toll-free access through task force (TF) meetings with legal and accounting experts since May.

The province plans to respect the court's decision as originally intended, maintaining the operator status of the Ilsan Bridge operator, but firmly intends to make Ilsan Bridge permanently toll-free as a promise to guarantee the basic traffic rights of residents.

To this end, the province notified the operator on the 3rd of a "public interest disposition prohibiting toll collection" so that toll-free access can continue during the period when the operator status is temporarily maintained until the main trial verdict on the public interest disposition.

As a result of this disposition, the operator will not be able to collect tolls. Accordingly, since issues such as maintaining worker employment and securing operating funds may arise, the province decided to prepay the operator an amount equivalent to the MRG as part of the fair compensation to be paid in the future.

The "amount equivalent to the MRG" is the reduction in toll revenue calculated according to Article 46 of the Implementation Agreement. The province will calculate the difference between the expected toll revenue that would have been collected without any reduction and the actual toll revenue collected after the reduction, and pay this amount to the operator.

The province especially expects, based on accounting expert analysis, that even if part of the acquisition amount is prepaid, the total acquisition amount will not change.

Furthermore, based on legal advice, the province anticipates that the acquisition of Ilsan Bridge will be confirmed by the main trial verdict, as the toll-free policy sufficiently provides public benefits such as guaranteeing basic traffic rights.

Lee Seong-hoon, Director of the Construction Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, said, "This method of prepaying part of the acquisition amount is a means to continuously keep Ilsan Bridge toll-free and guarantee the traffic rights of local residents," adding, "Since this suspension of execution is a temporary decision, we expect the public interest disposition to proceed as planned through the main trial verdict."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.