Spreading Korea's Excellent Railway Technology

Kim Sang-kyun (right), chairman of Korea Rail Network Authority, pose for a photo with Senggel Volt, president of Mongolia Railways, after signing a business agreement on creating the East Asian Railway Community in April.

Korea Rail Network Authority (KRNA) is taking the lead in spreading Korea’s railway technology to East Asia, including India and Indonesia. As of June this year, the corporation participated in 65 projects in 21 countries, diffusing Korea’s excellent railroad technology all over the world.

The agency has been striving to lay the foundation for the integration of railways in East Asia. In April this year, the agency’s officials visited Mongolia and Russia and signed cooperation MOUs for the realization of the East Asian Railway Community.

KRNA announced earlier this year that a preliminary feasibility study on the Russian Ural High Speed ​​Rail Project will be conducted from February to August. The project was selected by the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport as a policy support project. The Ural High-Speed Rail project is a privately proposed project that connects a 218 km section between Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg on the Moscow-Beijing route. Russia proposed the Korean government’s participation in the project. Backed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea Rail Network Authority decided to implement the project after reviewing it with Korean companies. The project will cost US$4.5 billion and take six years to complete.

Since then, KRNA has been carrying preliminary work to implement the East Asian Railway Community with Indonesia, India, Mongolia and Russia.

On Jan. 24, the authority signed an MOU with Jakarta Asset Management Corp. to cooperate with Indonesia to participate in the second phase of a light railway project.

In March, Lucknow Metro, KRNA’s first project in India, began its operation in India. Lucknow Metro is a mass rapid transit system for the city of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The project cost a total of 1.83 trillion won. KRNA formed a consortium with foreign companies to carry out a portion of the project worth about 42.1 billion won.

In addition, in June this year, KRNA signed an MOU with Turkish Railway Authority for cooperation in railway projects. In July, the agency landed an order to provide consulting on building a light railway in the Philippines by partnering with mid-sized Korean companies. It also signed an MOU on the Medan Light Rail project in India in September and a business management consulting contract for Costa Rica's regional passenger railway in November.

KRNA chairman Kim Sang-kyun visited Mongolia and Russia from April 19 to 26 as the first step in implementing the East Asian Railway Community. In Mongolia, Kim paid a courtesy call on Mongolian President Battulaga to confirm Mongolia’s participation in the East Asian Railway Community. The Mongolian road and transportation minister said that the ministry would organize a working-level task force for the project. This actually led to an MOU between KRNA and Mongolia Railways. Through the MOU, the two organizations agreed to cooperate on the construction of new routes for the Mongolian railway construction project (total length of 5,600 km) which was finalized in 2010. They also agreed on exchanges and training of railway technology and engineers.

Copyright © BusinessKorea. Prohibited from unauthorized reproduction and redistribution