Gyeonggi Province, 'GTX-C Line Project' Pushes Full Administrative Support

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Kim Gap-dong] Gyeonggi Province has decided to provide full administrative support for the Greater Seoul Area Express Railway (GTX) C Line project.

This follows the recent resolution of the construction cost increase issue for the GTX-C Line through mediation by the Korea Commercial Arbitration Board.

According to Gyeonggi Province on the 2nd, the Korea Commercial Arbitration Board announced on the 1st that it welcomed the partial cost increase decision rendered regarding the GTX-C Line construction cost dispute mediation requested by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The Korea Commercial Arbitration Board is a non-profit organization established with approval from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and is the only statutory arbitration body under the 'Arbitration Act'. Private experts by field participate as arbitrators and render conclusions in a single hearing. Arbitration decisions have the same effect as court judgments.

The GTX-C Line held a groundbreaking ceremony in January 2024, but issues regarding project costs emerged due to soaring material and labor costs. Accordingly, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requested mediation from the Korea Commercial Arbitration Board for the GTX-C Line construction cost dispute at the end of last year.

The Province expects that with the total project cost increase now decided, the biggest obstacle to project implementation has been cleanly resolved and the GTX-C Line project will proceed in earnest.

According to this mediation, the total project cost increase must go through the operational agreement amendment process. However, since the project has been long delayed, the project operator plans to immediately engage in actual field work such as obstacle relocation and fence installation as early as the end of this month, apart from administrative procedures.

In line with this, the Province plans to hold a working-level meeting with cities and counties, the Korean Railroad Corporation, and private operators on the 10th. At this meeting, matters including rapid permit processing procedures for the route passage section, budget securing, and preventive management of on-site complaints, which are a major cause of project delays, will be intensively discussed to ensure swift construction proceeds.

Choo Dae-un, Director of the Province's Railroad, Harbor and Logistics Bureau, said, "Gyeonggi Province also made efforts to resolve the construction cost dispute by visiting the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport multiple times, and persistently publicizing substantive problems and solutions. Going forward, we will not only provide full administrative support but also make efforts on the ground to ensure swift project progress rather than simply observing the situation," he said.

Meanwhile, when the GTX-C Line, which connects a total of 86.46km from Deokjeong Station in Yangju to Suwon Station, opens, the time taken from Deokjeong in Yangju to Samseong Station in Seoul, and from Suwon to Samseong Station, will be drastically reduced to approximately 20 minutes each.