Shozaburo Kon did not expect to face the ordeal he eventually had to endure when he took the plan of his new house to a local office of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government 10 years ago.

The 74-year-old owner of a grocery store in Musashino was told that he could not build the three-story shop-cum-residence on the 100-sq.-meter plot because it violated a zoning regulation banning buildings with more than two stories in areas along the route of a planned expressway.

His two-story house could not accommodate his expanding family, now with two grandchildren. Worse, his wife had started dialysis treatment at a nearby hospital, ruling out the option of the old couple moving somewhere else.

He spent the next 10 years pleading with various levels of authority to let him build the new house, but to no avail. "This is outrageous," said Kon, who had to make room for the family by taking over half of his shop's space -- which obviously hurt his income.

A 30-year freeze on the controversial beltway project in Tokyo has left Kon and some 3,000 other residents living along its planned route, threading through seven municipalities, in limbo.

The central government has recently begun a review of the road, following an initiative by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Yet, given the time-consuming procedures for a major project like this, it will be another decade or two before construction starts, if it ever gets under way.

The beltway, Gaikando ("outer loop expressway"), is a planned 85-km highway within a 15-km radius of central Tokyo. It connects nine expressways radiating from the core of the capital.

Authorities claim that the beltway, when completed, will alleviate the chronic congestion in the metropolitan area by diverting traffic currently using city streets to move between the expressways.

Car traffic estimates for the beltway are 120,000 per day and the construction ministry forecasts that it will reduce traffic on the parallel Kanjo Seven and Eight routes by some 16 percent and 22 percent respectively.

So far, 29.6 km of the loop has been completed between Oizumi in Nerima Ward and Misato, Chiba Prefecture. Construction has started at another 20-km section in Chiba.

Yet the project has been frozen on the 16-km section between Nerima and Setagaya Wards for three decades. Authorities have been blamed for having done little to break a stalemate created by strong local opposition.

Those who oppose the project charge that the central government decided on the project in 1966 without prior consultation with residents of the affected area.

"People learned in the newspaper that the expressway would be built in their community on the day of the announcement," said Yuzo Hamamoto, representative of a local opposition group.

The authorities' high-handed manner caused a huge public uproar, prompting then Construction Minister Ryutaro Nemoto to announce the freeze on the project in October 1970, pending dialogue with local residents.

Since then, the project has cluttered the table and residents of the area along the route have had to live with uncertainty about their future, with their rights to property use restricted by zoning policies.

Hamamoto, who runs a real estate company in Musashino, said the restrictions made properties in affected areas worth some 15 percent less than comparative homes.

"We have been bothered by these things day and night for years," he said. "The project also inflicts mental damages."

It was Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara who brought the half-forgotten history of the road back to the fore, starting with his visit to project sites in October 1999.

Government officials started a dialogue with residents in April and a five-strong project task force was set up within the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in August.

In January, at the request of Ishihara, Chikage Ogi visited the sites and met local residents, the first construction minister to do so since the project was frozen.

Later last month, at an Upper House committee, Ogi indicated a desire to lift the freeze, presenting the idea of replacing the planned elevated road with an underground tunnel.

In the new scheme, the beltway would be constructed using the shield method, drilling the tunnel about 20 meters below the surface.

While this alternative may be more acceptable than elevated roads, it is an expensive method of construction -- more than three times the cost of an elevated highway -- about 100 billion yen per kilometer.

Yet, the authorities' renewed efforts to resume the beltway project has put Hamamoto and other opponents on alert.

Hamamoto said that instead of pushing the tunnel plan, authorities should scrap the project and start again from scratch after considering the need for a beltway at all.

"We have been opposing the project for years, not only out of our own interests," he said. "In this era of environmental destruction, do we really need to destroy what we have now for a dozen percent of cars?" he asked, referring to the percentage of cars that it is estimated will be diverted from regular roads.

The 30-year wait has, however, started to wear down Hamamoto, who still vows to fight on to the end. "It is long. A guy who was born in the year of the freeze is a senior official on the project today," he said.

"Bureaucrats change every couple of years and I have to repeat the same explanation every time. I am tired."

Given the unclear prospect for the future and their own age, however, many others who once opposed the project have started to believe that their opposition is futile and are instead calling for the freeze to now be lifted, with whatever consequences that brings.

"We are the second generation (of activists) and different from our predecessors, who merely called for the cancellation of the project. We have to think about the future," said Kenji Okada.

The 52-year-old farmer from Mitaka is a member of a group of local residents that has been calling for the ban to be lifted. "If we continue opposing the project, our future will be destroyed," he said.

Among his land holdings are a 1,000-sq.-meter crop field, located within the zoning section under the beltway project.

He said changing situations affecting farming over the past 30 years have caused him to have second thoughts on the issue.

"It does not matter if we just continue farming," he said. "But when we think about the next generation, which may not be farming, we cannot just keep the freeze going."

Okada said people should realize that opposing the project is a waste of time and effort because it will not be scrapped. Instead, local residents should become actively involved in the process to win favorable conditions.

The 30-year freeze has affected not only individual property owners but the fate of the whole town, according to Shigeru Yuyama, 69, a representative of shop owners in the Kamishakujii shopping mall district of Tokyo's Nerima Ward.

"Our town is literally frozen by the freeze," he said, claiming that the district has missed out on city redevelopment projects that have been carried out elsewhere in Tokyo due to the zoning regulation.

The freeze has also denied local shop owners opportunities to increase their revenue by building multistory buildings.

Given the unclear prospects for the town's future, many shop owners have decided not to look for successors to take on their businesses. Yuyama, who runs a noodle shop across from the railway station, said he no longer wants his son to work at his restaurant.

"We are not sure when we will have to close the place. Just as the government has its plan, we have our own plans," he said. "If the freeze continues, the town will be deserted. Now, we have to think about how to redevelop this town in a better way," he said.

The central and the Tokyo Metropolitan governments are currently drawing up the new tunnel proposal to present it to local residents, but the final decision is still years away. And it will be another decade or two before the construction actually starts.

"If they had (lifted the freeze) earlier, we could have restarted a whole new life, but it is too late now. The authorities have been indifferent to our suffering," grocery store owner Kon said bitterly.