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Transportation: Blueprint of railways development

By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-17 13:50

China has long had plans for laying 120,000 km worth of railways by 2020, but as the global economic slowdown begins to bite, it looks as though the money will be spent faster than planned to help speed flagging economic growth in China.

In September and October, the Ministry of Railways announced eight new railway projects in various parts of the country. Their investment has added up to 405 billion yuan, equaling 78 percent of the total investment that China poured into railway construction from 2003 to 2007.

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In the past five years, the total investment for the railway infrastructure was 522 billion yuan, Minister Liu Zhijun told a working conference in January.

The start-up of the eight railway projects in a short period of time is the beginning of a railway construction boom.

The ministry's planning department chief Yang Zhongmin says about 3.5 trillion yuan will be invested on railway projects in next three years.

At present, 150 railway projects are under construction, involving an investment of 1.6 trillion yuan, he says.

Though most of the investment was approved in 2007 when China's economy was still in a double-digit growth mode, the projects could still be highlights of the government's moves to spur domestic demand, he says.

Huge railway investment

The ministry says the State Council will approve projects to build 10,000 km of railways in 2009 and 2010 respectively, with expenditure of about 1 trillion yuan in each of the two years.

In the fourth quarter this year, the ministry plans to add 50 billion yuan of investment. It ends with this year's total railway investment to hit 350 billion yuan, which is even more than the past two years combined.

According to a ministry document, 155.3 billion yuan was spent on railway construction in 2006, and 177.2 billion yuan in 2007.

In 2009, the railway investment will double that of this year to exceed 700 billion yuan on railway projects and train purchasing, the ministry says.

The total railway expenditure between 2004 and 2020 will cross 5 trillion yuan, to build a 120,000 km long railway system, Yang says.

According to the mid- and long-term railway plan, the money will be spent mainly on high-speed railways, heavyload freight transport railways, as well as projects that transform existing lines into double-track, electrified railways.

The high-speed railway projects are costly. According to the ministry document, the 120-km Beijing-Tianjin line, which began in August, has cost 21.5 billion yuan. The biggest railway project in China so far, the 1,318-km Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, is estimated to cost 220.9 billion yuan over five years, the ministry said in May when the project began.

"For many of the high-speed railway projects, the average cost for 1 km worth of railway has exceeded 100 million yuan," says Li Hong, a railway researcher of the National Development and Reform Commission's (NDRC) comprehensive transport institute.

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