Court OKs Osaka Railway Project, Rejects Suit By Residents

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Mar. 30–OSAKA — The Osaka District Court on Thursday turned down a suit seeking nullification of the government’s permission to build a new railway line in Osaka because of possible serious noise problems.

Presiding Judge Fumio Hirotani said that full anti-noise measures had been planned after the 2003 start of the construction, brushing aside the plaintiffs’ concerns over future noise damage.

The plaintiffs — 99 individuals and business corporations — said they will appeal the ruling.

The minister of land, infrastructure and transport authorized a public-private joint firm, Nishi-Osaka Railway Co., in January 2003 to build a 3.4-kilometer railway extension line linking Nishikujo Station in western Osaka with Kintetsu Namba Station located in Osaka’s downtown “Minami” business and shopping area.

In October that year, the joint firm began building the Nishi-Osaka Line. Most of the track is underground but a 1-kilometer section near Nishikujo Station is above ground.

The plaintiffs argued that railway noise may exceed the state-designated permissible levels and the Osaka city government’s environmental assessment is defective.

But the three-judge panel ruled that the city’s assessment is reasonable as a whole and the railway operator’s anti-noise measures are most likely to clear the state-designated noise requirement.

In the decision, the three-judge panel allowed 84 individuals of the 99 plaintiffs to stand to sue and denied suing qualifications for the remaining 15 individuals and firms.

Nishi-Osaka Railway was established in Osaka in July 2001 by 22 public and private entities. The Osaka prefectural and city governments, Hanshin Electric Railway Co., the state-run Development Bank of Japan, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and Osaka Gas Co. are among them.

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