Hyundai Rotem revealed its hydrogem tram at a rail convention in Busan in 2023. Credit: Hyundai Rotem.

The city of Daejeon in South Korea is moving forward with its new light rail project after the signing of a Won293.4bn ($219.4m) contract for its first hydrogen trams and the reveal of further information on its construction.

The Won1.5tn Daejeon Urban Railway Line 2 project will see the construction of a 38.8km light rail line in the city that will be served by South Korea’s first domestically built hydrogen trams from Hyundai Rotem.

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Daejeon’s local authority also announced that it would give the first construction orders for the project this month for five of the project’s 14 sections, with another order to follow in October.

The remaining nine sections will cover the installation of light rail tracks on existing roadways and will begin construction sequentially from January 2025, with the project expected to begin services in 2028.

Mayor Lee Jang-woo said the city decided to break the project up into different sections to increase the participation of local contractors in line with its 49% while allowing larger companies to still take on the difficult sections.

He said: “When establishing the tram construction order plan, we subdivided the construction sites and significantly lowered the bidding participation requirements to expand the opportunities for local companies to participate.”

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The project consists of the construction of the 38.8km circular line and 45 tram stops, of which 41 will be relative types with separate stops for the inner and outer lines, three will be island types with an integrated stop, and one will be an underground stop at Seodaejeon station.

Hyundai Rotem’s hydrogen tram design has been in development since 2021 and was revealed to the public for the first time in August 2023, the model is powered by hydrogen fuel cells and can travel 150km on one charge.