Korea starts work on new bullet train route

Korea broke ground Friday to build a new 230 kilometer high-speed railway in the southwestern part of the country, government officials said, the Yonhap News reported.



The country plans to pour 11.27 trillion won ($9.8 billion) into the construction of the railway linking Osong, about 100 kilometers 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 182.3 kilometer-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 330 kilometers between Seoul and Gwangju, saving 66 minutes, the ministry said.



The railway project will create 172,000 jobs and touch off production worth of 20.7 trillion won, the ministry said.