The national government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government have agreed to build a controversial expressway project in Tokyo under ground to avoid costly land purchases, transport minister Chikage Ogi said Friday.
"By also making the tunnel more compact, we can reduce costs by 300 billion yen," Ogi told a news conference. "We'd like to complete it as the first project under the deep subterranean utilization law."
Under the law, authorities are not required to buy land or compensate residents if tunnels for subway or road construction projects lie more than 40 meters below the surface.