Govt. mulls safety checks on all SOC, energy facilities

The government is considering having social overhead capital and public energy firms conduct safety checks on all facilities under their oversight as part of efforts to pre-empt accidents, officials said Sunday.

The move comes after a series of recent incidents, such as the derailment of a KTX bullet train operated by the Korea Railroad Corp. and the bursting of old heating pipes operated by the Korea District Heating Corp.  

(Yonhap)

"We're considering asking SOC and energy-related public firms to conduct safety checks on all facilities under their control and come up with ... reinforcement plans," a finance ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said last week that the government will look into whether recent accidents have any links to management faults at public firms, and have those firms come up with improvement plans.

On Sunday, Hong held a meeting with ministry officials to discuss ways to minimize accidents at public firms and SOC facilities. (Yonhap)