China to allocate $116 billion to implement the railway projects

Almaty. February 20. Silkroadnews – This year the Chinese government will allocate 800 billion yuan ($116 billion) of the budget funds to implement 35 major railway projects, TASS informs.

“... China Railway Corporation is in charge to supervise the construction of new steel trunks, including 2.1 thousand kilometers of single-line railways and 2.5 thousand kilometers of double-track railways and around 4 thousand kilometers of electrified tracks”, the statement said.

According to China’s Deputy Minister of Transport Yang Yudong, about 3.5 trillion yuan ($510 billion) are planned to be allocated for the railways’ development within the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).

During this period the total length of China’s high-speed railways tracks is expected to reach 30 thousand kilometers, meaning 80% of the large cities of the country will be connected to the high-performance net of railway passenger and freight services.

In 2016 the total length of steel trunks in China exceeded 124 thousand kilometers, including 22 thousand of high-speed rail lines.

Implementation of these projects will allow the government of the PRC to build an effective transport system to boost the development of those western regions of China that fall behind in terms of economic progress, the article says.