(LEAD) S. Korea starts work on new bullet train route

(ATTN: CHANGES dateline; UPDATES with remarks from President Lee in paras 6-10)
By Nam Kwang-sik
SEOUL/GWANGJU, Dec. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea broke ground Friday to build a new
230 kilometer high-speed railway in the southwestern part of the country,
government officials said.

The country plans to pour 11.27 trillion won (US$9.8 billion) into the
construction of the railway linking Osong, about 100km south of Seoul, and Mokpo,
a southwestern port, by 2017, the transport ministry said.
Earlier in the day, President Lee Myung-bak and a number of government officials
held a ceremony in the city of Gwangju to mark the groundbreaking of the first
182.3km section of the railway linking Osong and Gwangju. That part is projected
to be completed in 2014.
Completion of the second section between Gwangju and Mokpo is scheduled for 2017.
Once construction is finished, it will take about one and a half hours to travel
the 330km between Seoul and Gwangju, saving 66 minutes, the ministry said.
President Lee noted the new express railway will help significantly speed up the
development of the southwestern part of the nation, which has long been
considered left out of the country's rapid economic and industrial growth.
"We would not have been able to start construction of the express railway today
if we only looked at the project from today's economic point of view," he said in
a speech at the ceremony held in Gwangju.
"But I thought differently. I believe basic national infrastructure, such as
railways or highways, must be considered from a future point of view," the
president added.
The new express railway will lead to an increase of companies seeking new
business opportunities in the area, offering new jobs and more income, Lee noted.
"This will quicken the speed of the development in this region," he said.
The railway project will create 172,000 jobs and touch off production worth 20.7
trillion won, the ministry said.
In April 2004, South Korea started offering high-speed rail service between Seoul
and Busan but part of the route -- between the southern port city and Daegu, an
industrial city about 300km southeast of Seoul -- was left unfinished.
The Busan-Daegu section of the Korea Train Express (KTX) is slated to be
completed by the end of next year.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)