New Town Road Opening Accelerated by Over 2 Years... "Realizing Traffic First, Move-in Later"

'Plan for Rapid Construction of Metropolitan Transportation Network in New Towns' Announced
Mandatory Establishment of Transportation Measures Within One Year of District Designation
Shortening of Administrative Procedures Such as Permits and Preliminary Feasibility Studies
Establishment of 'Metropolitan Transportation Account' Within LH... Project Cost Management

The timing for establishing transportation measures in new towns will be advanced to within one year after the designation of the district, and administrative procedures will be significantly reduced. Compared to the average completion period of metropolitan transportation facilities in the 2nd phase new towns, roads are expected to be shortened by about 2 years, and railways by about 5 years 6 months to 8 years 6 months. To ensure transparent management of transportation project funds, a 'Metropolitan Transportation Account' will be newly established within the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH).

View of the Topyeong-dong area, Guri-si, Gyeonggi Province / Photo by Yonhap News

On the morning of the 5th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the 'Rapid Construction Plan for Metropolitan Transportation Networks to Realize Prior Transportation and Subsequent Occupancy' at the Emergency Economic Ministers' Meeting and Price-Related Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office. This measure aims to resolve the issue of prolonged delays in metropolitan transportation facilities during the development of new towns and large-scale housing supply, which has caused inconvenience to the public.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will first advance the timing for establishing transportation measures for public housing projects from the existing 'before district plan establishment' to 'within one year after district designation' as a mandatory requirement. This is to secure sufficient project duration by establishing transportation measures early. Although amendments to the Public Housing Special Act and the Enforcement Decree of the Metropolitan Transportation Act are necessary, the new timing will be immediately applied to newly announced housing sites such as Guri Topyeong 2 District and Osan Segyo 3 District in Gyeonggi Province. Compared to the 2nd phase new towns, where it took more than two years to establish transportation measures after district designation, the Ministry expects to promote transportation measures about one year earlier.

Additionally, to prevent frequent project changes and disagreements during the transportation measure implementation process, mediation will be conducted. Since transportation measures have been finalized without sufficient consultation with local governments and others, the Ministry plans to directly reconfirm local government opinions in the procedural process. Furthermore, major contentious issues will be reflected after prior adjustment, and conflicts arising during project implementation will be resolved within six months after the start of mediation through a 'conflict management system' within the Ministry.

Administrative procedures necessary for individual project implementation will also be simplified. For roads passing through two or more local governments, delays have occurred due to conflicts between local governments during the permit process and excessive permit condition demands. Therefore, the Ministry will directly review and approve project plans for essential roads, and related permits will be deemed granted (considered as received) to improve the process.

For railways, if the developer bears 100% of the costs, the basic project plan can commence even before being reflected in higher-level plans such as the National Railway Network Plan. Railway projects have inevitably been delayed for a long time because preliminary feasibility studies and basic plan establishment were only possible after inclusion in related higher-level plans established every five years.

In such cases, preliminary feasibility studies will be shortened or exempted if certain conditions are met. Financial feasibility studies are designated when the transportation measure establishment authority is the state and the developer bears more than 50% of the project cost after establishing a specific project plan. Public institution feasibility studies apply to projects promoted as national policy through the Cabinet meeting with a specific project plan established. When transportation measures must be changed inevitably, transportation demand forecasting (by the developer) and committee review will be omitted.

Moreover, to enhance transparency in transportation project funds, a metropolitan transportation account will be established within LH to separately manage metropolitan transportation improvement project funds. This addresses the issue of costs for actual development projects and transportation projects being operated without distinction. In this regard, the Ministry's Metropolitan Transportation Committee will directly establish annual account revenues and expenditure plans by project. Execution performance will be checked semiannually, and projects with delayed execution will be strictly managed to ensure individual projects are completed within the planned period.

Projects that are delayed or require early completion will be selected as focused investment projects, with additional project funds allocated annually compared to the original plan. If projects are delayed due to local government budget shortages, the plan is to diversify investment methods by utilizing surplus funds within the metropolitan transportation account to provide loans to local governments. Additionally, the investment scope will be expanded (from 20 km to 50 km from the project district boundary) to allow metropolitan transportation improvement project funds to be invested in essential long-distance metropolitan transportation facilities such as metropolitan transfer centers.

A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official said, "We will steadily implement this plan to achieve stable housing supply through new housing site development and the national goal of '30-minute commuting in the metropolitan area.' We will strive to realize prior transportation and subsequent occupancy."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.