High-speedpassenger rail lines are being built in Shanghai and three nearby provinces with investment on the new projects to reach 196.3 billion yuan (US$28.7 billion) this year, the Shanghai Railway Administration said yesterday.
SRA manages rail transport in Shanghai, neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and part of nearby Anhui Province.
SRA officials said the national authority planned to start building 18 new rail lines in the region this year, most of which would be for passenger transport. The lines would be designed with improved capacity and speed.
Of the total budget for railway construction this year, about 181 billion yuan has been earmarked to set up new lines and about 15.3 billion yuan allocated to upgrade and extend existing lines.
Of the new projects, the Shanghai-Nanjing passenger express has been praised by authorities for its efficiency and capacity. The new train shuttles on the line are expected to arrive at stops at three-minute intervals between Shanghai and Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province.
Bullet trains traveling at 220 kilometers an hour will serve the new passenger line.
Officials said the last of the residents living on the railway route in Jiangsu Province would be relocated by the end of the month and their houses demolished. Construction of the railway began on July 1. It is scheduled to open for service before July 1, 2010.
The project of Shanghai-Beijing express line was also launched in July.
When completed in 2010, the high-speed line will reduce train travel between Shanghai and Beijing from 12 hours to five hours.
Railway officials said new projects in the region likely to start before the end of the year included the passenger line between Hangzhou and Ningbo, both in Zhejiang Province, a line between Nanjing and Hangzhou, and another line between Nanjing and Anqing in Anhui Province.
