GTX-B·C Line Substation in Front of Cheongnyangni Station Mixed-Use Complex
Residents Say "Hasty Administration, District Office Did Not Properly Inform" After Bringing GTX-B Line Ventilation Shaft and Substation to Their Doorstep
Site planned for GTX ultra-high voltage substation. To the left of the site, there is a 65-story residential-commercial complex apartment. (Source: Naver Satellite Image)
As a high-voltage substation is set to be built just 50 meters away from a national and public daycare center, residents near Cheongnyangni Station in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, have strongly opposed the plan. Residents in the area criticize the Dongdaemun District Office for having responded lukewarmly to the issue so far.
According to local residents on the 29th, nearly 1,000 posts opposing the installation of the 수도권광역급행철도 (GTX) substation have been uploaded on the Dongdaemun-gu website’s “Requests to the District Mayor” bulletin board within the past month alone.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the approval of the implementation plan, including the substation at the site, on December 27 last year, in connection with the GTX-B and C line construction at Cheongnyangni Station, which held a groundbreaking ceremony earlier this year. However, residents claim that they were not properly informed about the substation being built there until recently, and that the district office did not make sufficient efforts to listen to the residents’ opinions.
The substation to supply power to the GTX-B and C lines will be located 36 meters from the entrance of Cheongnyangni Station Lotte Castle SKY-L65 (1,425 households), a residential-commercial complex where residents moved in starting August last year, and a national and public daycare center attended by children of residents in this complex is currently operating.
Hwang In-gyu, president of the Lotte Castle SKY-L65 Residents’ Representative Meeting, said, “Local residents were unaware until recently that a high-voltage substation would be built right in front of their homes, and it has been confirmed that key officials at the district office were also not fully aware of this. Now they claim that all procedures have been properly followed,” adding, “The plan to install a substation in the very center of a densely populated residential area with tens of thousands of residents is absolutely incomprehensible and unacceptable.”
Near the site of the substation, including this residential-commercial complex, about 3,000 households moved in just last year, and there are over 5,000 households within a 250-meter radius.
Hwang claimed, “Although the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the construction company Hyundai Engineering & Construction held a residents’ briefing session in August last year, it was either the early stage of move-in for the nearby large apartment complexes or the move-in had not been properly completed, so residents actually within the impact zone were unaware of this and could not participate.”
Another resident from a nearby complex criticized, “The government suddenly decided to build the GTX-B line ventilation shaft, originally planned for Seongdong-gu, in Dongdaemun-gu, and now plans to build a high-voltage substation right in front of a daycare center. Dongdaemun-gu is just standing by with folded hands.”
Jeong Seong-young, a Dongdaemun District Council member who first raised this issue, said, “I cannot accept the idea of building a substation at the entrance of an apartment complex and near a daycare center,” and added, “The location of the substation, which threatens residents’ health and safety, must be changed.”
Councilor Jeong pointed out, “Despite being the only substation to be constructed in the Seoul section of the GTX-B and C lines, it was pushed forward without sufficient explanation, which is a serious problem.” The district council adopted a resolution on the 24th, proposed by Councilor Jeong, urging the relocation of the Cheongnyangni Station GTX-C line substation.
Regarding this matter, the position of Dongdaemun-gu differed from the residents’ and councilor’s claims that the district office learned about the issue late or did not properly listen to residents’ opinions. Dongdaemun-gu stated, “There is no policy that ignores residents’ opinions,” and officially declared that both the district and Mayor Lee Pil-hyung will “use all means to block the plan.”
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