Reasons for Proposal and Major Provisions

The current Act defines a periodic inspection as routine activities by which a person with experience and skills visually investigates the safety and performance of railroad facilities, inspection apparatuses, etc. to manage railroad facilities.

However, a field inspection method that relies on a visual inspection or inspection apparatuses is not consistent with the digitalization happening across all of society; in fact, it makes it virtually impossible to conduct safety checks on all sections of the railroad, which measures thousands of kilometers in length. This hinders the safe and efficient management of railroad facilities and it is necessary to improve upon existing inspection methods by employing a remote sensing method that can cover all sections of the railroad.

Accordingly, the Amendment introduces remote sensing, which uses sensors and data collected through sensors, as a method of periodic inspection, thereby aiming to digitalize the maintenance of railroad facilities and further reinforce the railroad facility management system (subparagraph 9 of Article 2 and Article 29 (1)).