Land Ministry to use direct approval system for road projects in Hanam, Incheon and Bucheon
The government, which has been pushing for faster housing supply, plans to accelerate key regional transport construction projects for its third-generation new towns through a direct approval system to minimize traffic disruptions for residents at the move-in stage.
Five projects are at the center of the push: a new connector road along Dongnam-ro in Hanam Gyosan, an expansion and improvement of Dongnam-ro in Hanam Gyosan, a partial widening of the intersection at the Seo-Hanam interchange entrance, an expansion of Beolmal-ro in Incheon Gyeyang, and a new Gyeongmyeong-daero in Bucheon Daejang.
The Metropolitan Area Transport Commission under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will hold a task-force review meeting Monday afternoon with related agencies, including the Seoul Regional Office of Land Management and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, to discuss measures for keeping the third-generation new town transport plan on track.
The Metropolitan Transport Act was amended last year to allow the ministry to directly approve road project plans spanning multiple local governments, cutting the time needed for permits and approvals. The ministry said it intends to use the task-force meeting as a springboard to accelerate the process in earnest.
For the five projects subject to direct approval, the ministry said it will closely monitor progress and upcoming milestones, and move quickly on inter-agency consultations during project execution to shorten the approval period as much as possible.
The meeting will also discuss adding two more projects in the Incheon Gyeyang district — an improvement of the Gochon interchange and work on the Sangya village passage — to the list of projects managed under the direct approval system.
Moon Seok-jun, acting director general for metropolitan transport policy at the commission, said the ministry must push ahead swiftly with regional transport improvements so residents face fewer traffic problems when they move in, as third-generation new town housing supply is now ramping up in earnest. "We will concentrate all our efforts on closely managing the progress of each project so that regional transport infrastructure is in place on schedule to match the housing supply timeline for the third-generation new towns, and on making full use of every available tool, including direct approval," he said.
Meanwhile, Minister Hong Ji-sun has repeatedly stressed the need to speed up housing supply. On Tuesday, she visited Incheon Gyeyang — the first of the third-generation new towns to receive move-in residents — alongside President Lee Jae-myung, and later shared a model for rapid ground-breaking on social media. At her confirmation hearing, Hong also pledged to build out regional transport networks in tandem with accelerated third-generation new town housing supply, vowing strict adherence to the principle of completing transport infrastructure before residents move in.
smh@heraldcorp.com
