Anchor: With the Lunar New Year holiday just around the corner, the South Korean government announced a set of traffic-related measures to be implemented to ease concerns over traffic jams and road safety during the four-day holiday.
Choi You Sun has the details.

Report: The state-run Korea Transport Institute expects nearly 32-point-eight million people to migrate during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, which runs from Friday to next Monday.

In its latest data on Tuesday, the institute said traffic congestion will likely peak between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. on Friday as millions of South Koreans head to their hometowns with an estimated traveling time of four hours and 20 minutes from Seoul to the central city of Daejeon.

The institute forecasts it will take an estimated eight hours and ten minutes to drive from Seoul to the southeastern port city of Busan and six hours and 50 minutes to the southwestern city of Gwangju.

Amid mass migrations of South Koreans heading to and from their hometowns, traffic congestion is expected to peak again between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. on New Year's Day on Saturday.

The institute predicts it will take four hours and ten minutes to get from Daejeon to Seoul, eight hours from Busan and six hours and 30 minutes from Gwangju.

In a bid to help ease the congestion, the government will temporarily expand roads into the shoulder, extend hours enforcing bus-only lanes and provide real-time traffic information.

All highway tolls will be exempt from Friday to Sunday.

The government will thoroughly check traffic signs and road facilities and operate an around-the-clock response system with the goal of halving the daily average number of traffic accident deaths from the most recent five-year average of eight-point-one.

About ten surveillance camera-equipped drones will fly over major highways as the police heighten their crackdown on traffic violators and drunk driving.

Operations of public transportation, including express buses, trains, city buses and subways will be extended during the holiday to meet the seasonal demands.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.