Seoul's Underground Railroad Promotion..."There's a 'Yeontral Park' in my neighborhood, too."

[Anchor]
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has announced that it will create a huge green space by undergrounding most of the city's ground railways.

It is expected that there will be a second Yeontral Park with a length of 68km across Seoul.The city of

in particular said that undergrounding is possible without additional budget input.

Reporter Kim Hyun-ah reports.

[Reporter]
It is Gyeongui Line Forest Road in Yeonnam-dong, Seoul.

As the railroad that divided Yeonnam-dong into two went underground and a long park was built in its place, it has now become an urban shelter and tourist attraction, and the commercial district has grown explosively.

These urban forest roads are expected to expand to 67.6km and 370,000 pyeong across 15 autonomous districts in Seoul.

It is more than 94% of the total 71.6km of the city's ground railways, and parks 40 times the size of the so-called "Yontral Park" will be created throughout the city.

The total project cost is estimated to be 25.6 trillion won, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government was confident that it would cover only profits from the development of complex facilities on the premise of selling historical sites without municipal or state funds.

[Sehun Oh / Seoul Mayor: (History) The upper space development profit is KRW 31 trillion, which can cover 121% of the project cost. (Also, the development profit will be used for regional development by investing heavily in the southwestern and northeastern regions that have been marginalized by ground railways, and therefore non-Gangnam regions.)]

As the underground railway is a long-cherished project, residents' expectations are high, but there was a backlash in areas that were not included in the integration plan.

[Kim Ki-duk / Minjoo Party of Korea Seoul Metropolitan Council member (Mapo-gu): (The search section is missing) There is a plan to develop the search station area, and it will be developed as the center of the western region linked to the DMC. (By the way) Seongsan, Search and Jeungsan areas are cut off by this railway. That's why I can't function properly in the city....]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government expected that if the plan is designated as a leading plan by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in December, actual underground work will begin in 2027.

I'm Kim Hyunah of YTN.