MOLIT to directly oversee permitting for seven road projects in the Third New Towns

[Financial News] The government will directly oversee permitting for road projects in and around Hanam Gyosan, Incheon Gyeyang and Bucheon Daejang to ease transportation difficulties for residents of the Third New Towns. It will expand the number of projects managed under the “direct permitting and approval” model, in which the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) directly approves road project plans, from the current five to seven. With move-ins to the Third New Towns set to begin in December, starting with Incheon Gyeyang, the aim is to ensure that metropolitan transport facilities are ready in time for residents’ arrival.
According to MOLIT’s Metropolitan Transport Commission (MTC) on the 25th, the commission will hold a review meeting on the afternoon of the 26th with relevant agencies, including the Seoul Regional Construction Management Office and the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH). The meeting will review the operation of the task force, which has been active since April this year, and closely examine how far projects under the direct permitting and approval model have progressed.
The direct permitting and approval model reduces the time required for permits and approvals by having MOLIT directly approve road projects and similar undertakings whose routes cross multiple local government jurisdictions. It was introduced after the Metropolitan Transport Act was revised last October and has now been in effect for a year. A total of eight projects are managed under this model, five of them related to the Third New Towns.
Three of the five projects are in Hanam Gyosan: building a new connecting road to Dongnam-ro, widening and improving Dongnam-ro, and widening part of the intersection at the entrance to Seo-Hanam IC. The other two are the widening of Beolmal-ro in Incheon Gyeyang and the construction of Gyeongmyeong-daero in Bucheon Daejang. The MTC plans to check each project’s current stage, including design and permitting, as well as its key upcoming milestones. If coordination with relevant agencies is needed during a project, it will be handled swiftly to reduce permitting time as much as possible.
The meeting will also consider expanding the scope of projects under management. After assessing the implementation conditions for each project with relevant agencies and whether direct permitting and approval is needed, the MTC plans to add two road projects included in the Incheon Gyeyang metropolitan transport improvement plan: the Gochon IC improvement project and a road section through Sangya Village. If the additions are approved, the number of projects related to Incheon Gyeyang will rise from one to three.
The task force conducting the review was established to select and manage projects under new town transport plans that could deliver significant improvements but risk delays because of disputes or permitting hold-ups. The MTC, local governments and project operators all participate, and the task force has operated annually since 2024.
Incheon Gyeyang will be the first of the Third New Towns to begin welcoming residents, this coming December. The first move-in phase will comprise 1,285 homes, including 747 public-sale units in Block A2 and 538 units in the Newlywed Hope Town in Block A3. LH said last month that it would launch city bus route No. 7701, connecting Gyeyang Station and the Incheon Gyeyang district, with service scheduled to begin in October. Including the five existing routes, six city bus routes will operate from the start of move-ins. Whether to launch an M Bus express service to the Gangnam area, as requested by Incheon City, will be decided at a route committee review in November.
Mun Seok-jun, acting director general for metropolitan transport policy at the MTC, said, “As housing supply in the Third New Towns is ramping up in earnest, we must press ahead with metropolitan transport improvement plans so residents do not face transportation difficulties,” adding, “We will continue to closely monitor progress on each project to ensure that metropolitan transport facilities are completed on time in line with the housing supply schedule for the Third New Towns, and focus all our efforts on making active use of available measures, including ‘direct permitting and approval.’”

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