Pyeongtaek City Holds Kickoff Meeting for 'Wind Corridor Forest' Project

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Pyeongtaek City held a 'Wind Corridor Forest Basic and Implementation Design Project Kickoff Meeting' on the 30th in the City Hall's main conference room to create a clean Pyeongtaek City free of fine dust.

The meeting, attended by approximately 20 related officials including Pyeongtaek Mayor Jung Jang-seon, Korean Garden Design Society Chairman Hong Gwang-pyo, and City Council Member Kwak Mi-yeon, proceeded with reports on future promotion plans for the Pyeongtaek City Wind Corridor Forest project, expert discussions, Q&A;, and opinion gathering.

The 'Pyeongtaek City Wind Corridor Forest Project' is an initiative the city is pursuing after being selected last year for a national competition hosted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Korea Forest Service aimed at improving citizens' quality of life and reducing fine dust. The project will invest a total of 20 billion won including 10 billion won in government funding, begin implementation design in October, and complete construction by 2021.

Upon completion, the wind corridor that linearly connects forests and streams is expected to draw clean, fresh air generated from forests and stream forests in the city's outskirts into the urban area, promoting air circulation and reducing fine dust.

Chairman Hong Gwang-pyo said, "If Pyeongtaek City creates a wind corridor forest by connecting existing urban forests with its well-developed streams based on the 'Urban Forest Creation and Management Plan' it has promoted over the past year, it could become a representative wind corridor forest among local governments nationwide."