"Cable car is exclusive for 60 years"."Namsan Gondola" is on the brakes.

[Anchor]
The gondola project has been put on hold as the court recently accepted a request for suspension of execution by the operator of the Namsan cable car, asking the Seoul Metropolitan Government to stop the construction of the Namsan gondola.

However, Namsan cable cars cannot handle excessive demand on weekends or during peak tourism, causing inconvenience to citizens due to long waits.

Reporter Cha Jung-yoon covered the scene.

[Reporter]
On a weekday evening, Namsan Park is Seoul's No. 1 tourist attraction.

Lovers and family members standing to ride a cable car to and from the top of Namsan Mountain stand out.

Foreign tourists and citizens are lined up inside the boarding building.

In the endless long queues, some citizens eventually turn around.

[Park Hee-jin and Yoon Da-hyun / Nokbeon-dong, Seoul: It says to wait 50 minutes in front of the ticket office, so I'm thinking about missing the baby academy next time and getting on earlier. I'm a little upset because I can't go to Namsan.]


"Bread"
The public parking lot in front of the
cable car is already full, and the road is jammed with vehicles wandering in parking difficulties.

Citizens point out that the only public transportation that can go up to the top is actually shuttle buses and cable cars, and it is necessary to expand transportation.

[Kong Pil-gyu / Mullae-dong, Seoul: I hope the shuttle bus runs more frequently (I hope). If there are more new transportation, it will be good for Namsan to become a more famous place in Seoul so that people can use it more.]

In order to meet the overflowing demand, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has begun construction, saying it will set up a gondola that can carry up to 1,600 people per hour from Myeong-dong to Namsan, but the construction is currently suspended.

The business was put on hold after the court accepted an application for suspension of execution filed by the cable car operator, which has been exclusive for more than three generations for more than 60 years, asking for the suspension of the gondola construction.

The court said the reason for the citation decision was that urgent needs were recognized to prevent hard-to-recover damage to cable car operators and that it was difficult to see any significant impact on public welfare.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government immediately appealed.

It is against justice and common sense to monopolize public land or public land by a small number of people, and the gondola project countered that the operating profit is a public service project that goes entirely for the preservation of the ecological environment of Namsan Mountain and civic leisure.

[Oh Se-hoon / Seoul Mayor: Seoul City will do its best to persuade the court harder to correct a monopoly system that has nothing to do with the public interest and restore the public interest.]


City intends to raise the issue of the cable car operator's 60-year business monopoly in the appeal trial and emphasize the public interest of gondolas to improve tourists' access to Namsan Mountain.

I'm YTN's Cha Jung Yoon.

Filmmaker: Lee Seung-joon
Graphic: Lee Na-young