[Anchor]

Redevelopment is being pursued in the old downtown area of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, due to poor infrastructure. With over 13,000 households recently designated as maintenance zones, the projects are gaining momentum.

Reporter Yu Yeong-su has the details.

[Reporter]

This is Taepyeong Districts 2 and 4 in Sujeong-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which were designated as living zone redevelopment maintenance zones last August.

Spanning a total of 180,000 square meters, the construction of around 4,400 households is being pursued.

Residents appeal that the situation is severe enough to cause the community to collapse, urging that redevelopment take place as soon as possible.

[Kang Ho-beom / Taepyeong-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam]: "Because the costs and other factors for repairs are so high, people give up. Houses are left empty, and the reality is that it's turning into something like a slum where people can hardly live. That is what this neighborhood is like right now."

Residents of Sujin District, who were also designated as part of the living zone redevelopment maintenance zones together, say they have reached their limit due to aging housing and poor infrastructure.

[Kim Eun-kyung / Sujin-dong, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam]: "Since the cement and steel frameworks themselves are sinking, repairs are of no use. Because it's so old, overall plumbing, water pipes, and utility tunnels are truly in a poor state."

Seongnam City has designated a total of five areas as living zone redevelopment maintenance zones this time.

The planned apartment scale alone exceeds 13,500 households in total.

Seongnam City plans to swiftly push forward with old downtown redevelopment projects, alongside the nine districts where redevelopment is already underway.

[Shin Sang-jin / Mayor of Seongnam]: "We plan to pay much more attention moving forward to streamlining all administrative procedures to shorten project schedules, providing loan interest subsidies and moving cost assistance, and supplying rental apartment housing where people can live after relocating."

In particular, Seongnam City plans to utilize approximately 1 trillion won from the urban residential environment improvement fund for the old downtown redevelopment.

(Photo: Yonhap News / Video by In Pil-seong)