Government legislation ministry blocks landowner bids for road construction

The government legislation ministry said Tuesday that landowners outside public project zones cannot demand the construction of roads or ferry facilities as an alternative to monetary compensation. The ruling clarifies that while project implementers may choose to build infrastructure instead of paying damages when costs are high, this option remains solely at their discretion.

The decision addresses a query regarding Article 59 of the enforcement rules for the Act on Acquisition and Compensation of Land for Public Works. Under current regulations, if land outside a project area becomes inaccessible or unusable due to public works, owners can request compensation as if their land were included in the project zone. When the compensation amount exceeds the cost of installing access roads or ferry services, the rules allow for the compensation to be replaced by such construction.

The ministry determined that the term "replace" implies a substitution made by the party responsible for compensation: the project implementer. "'Replace' generally means to change something with another," the ministry said. "Therefore, the proviso... is a provision allowing compensation... to be changed to and replaced by the installation of roads or ferry facilities, and the person who can replace compensation with another method should be viewed as the project implementer, the subject of compensation." While the main clause of the regulation explicitly states that compensation occurs upon the request of the owner, the proviso regarding infrastructure substitution contains no such language granting owners the right to make that specific demand.

This interpretation distinguishes the current case from the land-for-land compensation system introduced in 2007, which allows owners to request land instead of cash. A company official noted that the earlier system was designed as a payment method selectable by the owner, whereas the infrastructure provision serves as a complete substitute for the compensation obligation itself. The ministry added that because new roads might need to be built on land belonging to third parties, recognizing an automatic right for landowners to demand such installation without explicit statutory grounds is difficult.