Undergrounding of Gyeongin Line Excluded from Pilot Project... Incheon City "Pursuing Inclusion in MOLIT Comprehensive Plan"

Incheon City is pursuing a plan to include the Gyeongin Line, which was excluded from the government's priority railway undergrounding projects, in the comprehensive undergrounding plan scheduled to be announced in December this year.

On the 20th, the city stated, "To underground the Gyeongin Line, we will form a task force (TF) with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Seoul City, and Gyeonggi Province, and after additional consultations on the project sections and costs, we will prepare a concrete implementation plan." They explained that since the Gyeongin Line passes through Incheon, Gyeonggi, and Seoul, there are some differences in positions among local governments.

The government announced at the Livelihood Economy Inspection Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office Building the day before that Busan, Daejeon, and Ansan were selected as priority sites for railway undergrounding pilot projects. For other undergrounding application sections such as the Gyeongin Line, the metropolitan area Gyeongbu Line, and the Gyeongwon Line, it was decided to prepare implementation plans after further consultations with the relevant local governments.

Incheon City submitted a proposal for a pilot project to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport last October to underground the 22.63 km section from Incheon Station to Onsu Station on the Gyeongin Line (estimated project cost of 3.4 trillion won).

The city expects that since the pilot projects announced by the government this time are of a trial nature, if the Gyeongin Line is reflected in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's future comprehensive railway undergrounding plan, the project implementation timing will not differ significantly from that of the pilot projects.

Additionally, in the case of the Gyeongin Line, similar to the Gyeongbu Line, since it spans two or more local governments, additional consultations among related ministries and local governments are necessary to finalize the undergrounding project.

An Incheon City official said, "Regardless of whether the Gyeongin Line is selected as a pilot project, we are currently establishing detailed commercialization plans," and added, "We will form a TF with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the three local governments to unite efforts so that it can be reflected in the comprehensive railway undergrounding plan by the end of this year."

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