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| Seen above is Wangsook area in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. The area has been selected as one of the sites for the government's project to build new apartment complexes surrounding Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Gov't promise to realize 30-minute commute to Seoul distant dream
By Nam Hyun-woo
Doubts are growing over the efficiency of the government's project to build new satellite towns surrounding Seoul, because transportation infrastructure is expected to be unavailable for years after those commuter towns begin supplying homes.
Experts said Friday existing satellite communities built under the government's previous suburb expansion projects have failed due to their inconvenient commute to Seoul, and the new developments have the urgent task of securing transportation infrastructure as soon as possible.
On Wednesday, the government announced it will set up four new towns supplying a combined 122,000 homes in Incheon and three Gyeonggi Province cities of Namyangju, Hanam and Gwacheon. Those homes will be available starting 2021.
In the announcement, Land Minister Kim Hyun-mee said those sites were selected because they can allow residents to commute to central Seoul within 30 minutes through adjacent Great Train Express (GTX) lines.
However, those train lines will take time to become available.
Currently, the government is planning three GTX lines of A, B and C. GTX A and B will cross Seoul in an X shape, and GTX C will run through the capital.
The government said it will break ground for GTX A and C "in the near future," but did not specify when they will be complete.
Of those trains, GTX A will break ground in 2019 and is expected to start running as early as 2023. GTX A passed a preliminary feasibility test in February 2014, but has taken nearly five years to begin construction.
GTX C has passed its feasibility test recently, and is expected to break ground in 2021, when residents will start moving into the new developments.
GTX B will take the longest time. The government said it will finish preliminary testing in 2019, meaning it is uncertain when the line, linking Incheon to northeastern Seoul, will be ready. The line will link to the new development in Namyangju, the largest of the four new sites supplying 66,000 homes.
Experts said such belated transport infrastructure planning will bring problems, which are already observed in commuter towns built in previous development projects.
In the government's 2003 housing development project, 12 sites were selected, including Wirye on the outskirts of Seoul and Dongtan in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.
Residents started moving into apartments in Wirye area in 2013 but a metro line promised by the government is yet to begin construction. For Dongtan, the GTX A line was supposed to help residents commute, but is not expected to operate until 2021.
This has created heavy traffic jams in roads linking those cities and central Seoul, with residents casting concern that additional developments will end up adding more cars those roads.
"Since those sites are closer to central Seoul compared to previous satellite towns, it will be possible to realize the government's goal of commuting in 30 minutes, but it has to be agile in carrying out those train plans because we have seen failures in the previous cities," said Shim Gyo-eon, a professor at the Real Estate Department of Konkuk University.
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