Changwon Mayor-elect Kang Ki-yoon Seeks Solutions to Key Issues in Jinhae, Including the Zip Track Facility

Kang Ki-yoon, the elected mayor of Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam, who has been visiting local project sites to find solutions to pending issues, will next visit the Jinhae area.

The 9th Changwon Mayor Transition Committee held a press conference at the City Hall Press Center on the 18th and announced Kang's plan to visit key project sites.

Previously, since the 15th, Kang visited several sites in the Masan area, including Masan Marine New Town, the Democracy Hall, the former site of Lotte Department Store Masan, as well as sites in the Changwon area such as the Changwon Culture Complex Town, the liquefied hydrogen plant, and Daesang Park Big Tree.

This time, he plans to inspect key project sites in the Jinhae area and sites preparing for summer flood and storm damage.

On the 19th, Kang is scheduled to visit the Palyong Drainage Pumping Station and the Sinchon Rainwater Storage Facility construction site to check preparations for summer disasters. On the 22nd, he will visit the development site of Ungdong District 1 and other key sites in the Jinhae area, including the zip track facility.

Kang Ki-yoon, the mayor-elect of Changwon Special City, Gyeongnam Province, is visiting Daesang Park's Big Tree and Moms Free Zone to inspect the site. [Photo by Changwon Mayor Transition Committee]

The Ungdong District 1 development project aims to build accommodations, leisure, and resort facilities on a 2.25 million square meter site in Sudodong, Jinhae-gu, Changwon. The private developer, Jinhae Ocean Resort, began construction in November 2013 but only completed the golf course by December 2017, leaving the rest of the project unfinished and progress halted.

Recently, Gyeongnam Development Corporation was designated as the sole project executor, and the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone Authority announced a normalization plan targeting groundbreaking in the second half of 2029 and completion by 2032. However, there are still unresolved issues, such as the development of livelihood land allocated to former fishermen who lost their fishing rights due to the development, and litigation over finalized investment costs with the previous private developer.

The zip track is a leisure tourism facility that opened in October 2019, allowing visitors to ride a wire for 1.4 km over the sea from Eumji-do to Sokuri Island in Jinhae-gu and return by jet boat.

At the time of its opening, it was the longest zip track over the sea in the country and gained popularity. However, in July 2022, after a passenger in their 60s suffered serious injuries in a collision with a safety device while using the facility, operations have been suspended for nearly four years.

Kang plans to review whether to reopen the zip track as a leisure tourism facility or permanently discontinue it, based on his on-site inspection.

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