Plan to Actively Develop Underground Space

The government announced that it would actively develop plans for construction of underground cities to relieve shortage of space in major cities. On June 22, 2002, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MCT) stated, “The gap between the lacking available land and the growing demand for it has sparked skyrocketing prices of real estate and, in some areas, made burgeoning inner cities. To resolve the problems, we have to utilize the underground space.”

MCT also explained that due to the advance in construction technologies, it is much easier to develop, and cheaper to compensate since purchasing underground land costs only 1/10 of the money needed for buying land above ground. Early this month, MCT commissioned a research project to the Institute for Urban Development of National Land to implement the plan. The research project, expected by next June, will provide ways to develop the underground space for the following purposes: first, ways of using the underground for facilities such as storage rooms, power plants and waste disposal facilities; for the long-term usage, ways to develop this as a substitute for the exiting “above-ground cities,” which are being destroyed by pollution.

The project will also propose methods to build up legal and administrative systems to realize the research results and facilitate the underground development.

Seo Choong-won, who is professor of urban engineering at the University of Seoul and will lead the research, opined, “We have used the underground only for subway and shopping mall. Our efforts are far from those of Canada and Japan. Such countries have actively engaged themselves in underground-developing.” Professor Seo also suggested, “Non-major cities, which have faced problems of slumming owing to shortage of developable land, may rejuvenate themselves by arranging recreational facilities underground.”

jsonhng@donga.com