Road Passing Through Mt. Bukhan Will Be Made as Scheduled

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation has decided to shift its plan on the metropolitan area that had focused on curbing overpopulation to systematic management. Accordingly, a number of regulations in the area will be lifted.

Also, the ministry will push for the plans on Kyoung-in canal, a road through Mt. Kum-jeong on Kyoung-bu High-speed Railroad and Mt. Sa-pae on the beltway outside Seoul, as scheduled. The plans were what Mr. Roh pledged to scrap or review from the start.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation was known Jan. 10 that it will announce the plan on an operation report of the Presidential Transition Committee (PTC) slated for Jan. 11.

The ministry has decided to develop the metropolitan area as a center of finance, future industries, and logistics if the administrative capital is moved to the Choong-chung area as Mr. Roh’s pledged.

To that end, the ministry will shift the basic directions of policies regarding the metropolitan area from curbing overpopulation to systematic administration, and revise the third improvement plan on the metropolitan area as well as the fourth program for land development to improve the area.

Therefore, ‘the regulation on the total number of factory constructions,’ ‘the overpopulation allotment in the metropolitan area,’ or ‘the location regulation on each zone in the area’ will be sharply loosened up.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation also will raise the house supply rate in Seoul and the surrounding area 100% by 2006 and build 1.53 million houses.

It plans to construct 100,000 houses for rent a year to provide for those who do not have one yet, by shifting the areas, such as the green belt lifted land, the residential development zones, the areas changed from factory to school, and the land for city planning that had not been used for a long time, to residential areas.

It will also extend the average size of such houses for citizens from 15 pyong to 20 pyoung and increase the number of houses to 100,000.

The ministry will push for a plan to establish a Northeast Asia railroad corporation in order to promote the project called ‘Silk Road of Steel,’ that will connect the Kyoung-bu High-speed Railroad and Honam High-speed Railroad with China and Russia.

Moreover, it will hold a test for a licensed real estate agent twice a year, try to settle the actual transactions of real estate, enact a special law for balanced development of land and accounting, construct a small-scale flying field in remote areas, and expand large-scale environment-friendly dams.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation is expected to deliver its policy to continue pushing for the plans on Kyoung-in canal, a road through Mt. Kum-jeong on Kyoung-bu high speed railroad and Mt. Sa-pae on the beltway outside Seoul, as scheduled.

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com