The Korea Rail Network Authority (KR) held a meeting on Jan. 9 atop Mt. Daemo in Ilwon-dong, Gangnam District in Seoul, where participants resolved to make 2016 accident-free. The meeting site was notable because it overlooked the Capital Area High-speed Rail, which is scheduled to open in the second half of 2016. About 100 officers and employees attended, led by President Kang Young-il.
At the meeting, President Kang said everyone at KR should do their best to make this year free of rail accidents in order to win the people’s respect and trust for the railroad operation in Korea.
The KR employees will hold the “3.3.3 Safety Campaign” at 3 p.m. every working day to check the three points, “me,” “fellow workers” and “KR.” That specific time was chosen because it was found to have the highest accident rate.
They also decided to hold the “4.4.4. Prevention Program” on the 4th, 14th and 24th day of every month. On the 4th, check-ups will be made on personal protection areas, education and so on, on the 14th, check-ups will be made on rail safety installations, and on the 24th, check-ups will be made on construction equipment. The program is designed to alert employees to make quicker responses to any rail accidents that might take place at any time on any given day without warning.
To build safer railroads, a system will be built to reduce the death rate from railroad accidents by concentrating on measures to prevent accidents in the first place. Plans include even small projects, expanding safety quality maintenance activities; standardizing construction equipment at all times; implementing the issuance of approval before a project is kicked off; appointing more than two persons to be in charge of safety on every project site; strengthening safety checks by safety inspection committee members; and expanding the use of drones to inspect projects which are hard to access.
KR plans to invest 8 trillion won in the construction of new railroads and the maintenance of the existing railroads, with 4 trillion won to be executed early in the year to spur economic growth and create jobs, while focusing on the prevention of accidents at railroad construction sites.
This year, KR is scheduled to open a number of key KTX Lines around the Capital Area, including the KTX Line from Suseo, Gyeonggi Province; the Soo-in Line Songdo-Incheon; the ShinBundang Line, Jeongja-Kwangkyo, Seongnam-Yeoju; the Gyeongjon Line in Jinju-Gwangyang; and the Donghae South Line Bujeon-Ilgwang, among others. All told, six major rail lines will be opened. In addition, KR plans to push 37 projects, including the repair of the Gyeongwon Line Southern Side and the construction of a railroad linking Wonju and Kangneung.
The Korea Rail Network Authority (KR), the state-run railroad builder, is expanding its overseas operations using the technology and experience it honed in South Korea.
The company, founded in 2004 in a merger between the Korean National Railroad's construction unit and the Korean Express Railroad Construction Corp., is actively boosting its presence in emerging markets such as Oman, Paraguay, India and Indonesia, as part of its efforts to diversify its business portfolio.
"We are continuing to target overseas construction projects aggressively as the world's railroad industry is growing every year," said an official of the KR.
The global railroad industry has grown 2.6 percent every year and is expected to reach 240 trillion won by 2017.
The company has participated in the bidding for a 300 billion won railroad project in Oman, competing against a consortium of companies from Spain, France and the United States. It is also hoping to strike a deal with the Paraguay government, which plans to build more railroads. The state-run company did a feasibility study for Paraguay's light-rail project in August.
Also, it formed a consortium with other global companies to win a 60 billion won bid for a metro railroad construction project in Gujarat, India.
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President Kang leads KR officers and employees to make the New Year's Resolution to make 2016 accident-free year on top of Mt. Daemo in Seoul on Jan. 9.
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