Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Allocates 62.5 Trillion Won Budget for 2026, Largest Ever

[Financial News] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has allocated a budget of 62.5 trillion won for next year. This is an increase of 4.3 trillion won (7.4%) compared to this year's main budget (58.2 trillion won), marking the largest scale ever.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 2nd, the 2026 budget is 8.6% of the government's total expenditure of 728 trillion won. The plan is to focus on five areas: △Public Safety △Construction Market Recovery △Stabilizing Livelihoods △Balanced Development △Future Growth.
In the SOC sector, 20.9 trillion won has been allocated. This includes railway construction such as GTX and the expansion of major roads and airports, as well as investment in ground safety. The expansion of railway networks such as GTX A, B, C lines, and the extension of KTX from Incheon and Suwon, Donghae Line to Buk-Ulsan Station is being promoted, and new road projects such as the 2nd Gyeongchun National Road and Gyeyang~Ganghwa Expressway are also being initiated. The construction of eight new airports including Gadeokdo, Saemangeum, and Daegu-Gyeongbuk is also a major budget item. The SOC budget has increased by 1.4 trillion won (6.7%) compared to this year.
The traffic safety budget has also been expanded. In the aviation sector, a total of 1.204 trillion won has been allocated for facility improvements such as bird strike prevention (13 airports), runway overrun prevention systems installation (3 airports), and securing longitudinal safety zones (11 airports). For railways, 2.9 trillion won will be invested in improving aging facilities and upgrading safety facilities, and for roads, efforts will be made to expand safety facilities such as winter snow removal and black ice prevention (898 billion won → 923 billion won) and improving dangerous roads (102 locations).
Additionally, to prevent ground subsidence accidents, the number of exploration equipment will be increased from 13 to 32, and the exploration sections by the government and local governments will be expanded to 7,020 km and 4,360 km, respectively. To strengthen the safety prevention system at small construction sites, support for smart safety equipment such as intelligent CCTV will be increased from 200 to 220 locations.
In the housing stability sector, the budget for supplying 194,000 public housing units has been expanded to 22.8 trillion won. Customized support for housing vulnerable groups such as youth, newlyweds, and the elderly will also be expanded. To revitalize the local construction market, a new budget of 4.95 trillion won has been allocated to purchase 5,000 unsold housing units after completion. In addition, the low-income youth monthly rent support project will be regularized, and the standard rent for households receiving housing benefits will be adjusted upwards.
Public transport support for livelihoods will also be strengthened. The K-Pass project budget has been more than doubled from 2.374 trillion won to 5.274 trillion won. A fixed-rate pass will be introduced to alleviate the transportation cost burden for youth and seniors, and the expansion of metropolitan bus semi-public operation routes and support for increasing buses during commuting hours will be carried out simultaneously. The budget for expanding metropolitan and urban railways and BRT support to enhance local public transport infrastructure has also been increased.
Moon Seong-yo, Director of Planning and Coordination at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated, “The 2026 budget plan has significantly strengthened investments in projects that the public can feel by drastically reducing wasteful budgets through strong expenditure restructuring and maximizing investment effects,” adding, “We will do our best to ensure that the first Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport budget of the People's Sovereignty Government can serve as a real catalyst for growth.” en1302@fnnews.com Jang In-seo Reporter