Republic Of Korea - Enactment of the technical regulations for the railroad constituents

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) has issued technical regulation forrailroad constituents as follows;

·  Regarding railroad constituents notified by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), manufacturer (or his representative) shall get type approval from MOLIT for the newly-designed railroad constituents or remarkably modified constituents. Also, manufacturer shall obtain manufacturer approval from MOLIT to enter into mass production for the type approved constituents (Railroad Safety ACT, Article 27 and 27-2).

·  Type approval is granted to the design for notified constituents that meet technical and safety requirements in the technical regulations.

· Manufacturer approval is production approval for the type approved constituents that manufacturer can meet quality management requirements in the technical regulations.

· MOLIT plans to enact technical regulations for the examination of type approval and manufacturer approval of 10 notified constituents.

·  Technical regulations for railroad constituents:The technical regulations consist of generals (part 1), applications (Part 2), 3 notified vehicle constituents (Part 3), 3 notified track constituents (Part 4), 3 notified wayside signalling & communication constituents (Part 5), electric railroad electric power (Part 6) and manufacturer approval regulation (Part 7).

The generals (Part 1) contain definition of terms, list of 10 notified constituent and their numbering, and marking of type approval.

The applications (Part 2) provide an applicant's qualifications, assessment criteria, certification documents and calibration report for type approval and manufacturer approval.

The technical regulations for 10 notified railroad constituents prescribe conformity assessment, and design requirements which include general requirements, materials, strength, test, interface with other constituents, maintainability, and etc. Part 3 : wheel, axle, coupler.

Part 4 : rail, glued insulated rail, pre-stressed concrete sleeper

Part 5 : electronic interlocking system, AF (audio frequency) track-circuit, automatic block system

Part 6 : contact wire

The technical regulation for manufacturer approval (Part 7) stipulates quality management requirements that manufacturer shall establish for mass production of type approved constituents, which includes quality management system, responsibility for quality control & manufacturing execution, production & quality preservation, and maintenance of quality management system.

Proposed date of adoption: To be determined

Proposed date of entry into force: To be determined

Final date for comments: 60 days from notification

If the Proposal/Notification/Regulation will affect your International Business please send us your representation with facts and figures, so that these can be taken up suitably.