Three construction officials arrested over Olympic railway project

By Park Sae-jin Posted : May 12, 2016, 15:25 Updated : May 12, 2016, 15:25

[Yonhap News Photo ]


South Korean prosecutors arrested three construction company officials on charges of collusion to share construction contracts in a state project to build a high-speed rail network for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The prosecutor's office in Seoul said that two officials from Hyundai Engineering $ Construction and one from Hanjin Heavy Industries were accused of playing a key role in collusion over the construction of a railway linking Wonju with the eastern port city of Gangneung, a major hub of the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.

Construction of the 59-kilometer (35-mile) high-speed rail line has involved four builders  -- Hyundai Engineering, Doosan Engineering, Hanjin Heavy Industries and KCC Engineering -- which were accused of working together so each would win a contract for one of the four sections of the railway.

The high-speed rail network, a key aspect of Pyeongchang's successful bid for the Winter Olympics in 2011,  will make visitors travel directly from the Incheon international airport west of Seoul through Wonju to Pyeongchang and then to Gangneung in about two hours.

There have been concerns over whether the railway could be completed in time for 2018, but Pyeongchang organisers have claimed there would be sufficient time to fully test it.

Meanwhile, former commerce minister Lee Hee-beom was elected Thursday as the new head of the Pyeongchang organizing committee to replace Hanjin Group boss Cho Yang-ho who stepped down last week to concentrate on restructuring the group's ailing units. Lee, a 67-year-old long-time bureaucrat, has served as a consultant for the organizing committee.

Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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