Blueprint of railways development
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.
And, there will be 9,700 km high-speed railways under construction by the end of this year, Minister Liu Zhijun said in January.
These railway projects are costly because of expensive land values, the need for many bridges, and precise, safe overall construction, Li Hong says.
In the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, for example, 23.4 billion yuan of the investment (10.5 percent of the total) is going for the acquisition of land in seven coastal provinces and municipalities that it runs through, Cai Qinghua, the project company’s chairman, said in an earlier interview with the Beijing-based Economic Daily.
The large proportion of bridges in the rail line also increases the cost, Li Hong said. As much as 80 percent of the Beijing-Shanghai rail link are for bridges to reduce the occupation of farmland, according to the ministry.
Liu Yu, a spokesman of the China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC), says that the project’s spending on building the railway subgrade and laying rail tracks is 83.7 billion yuan, accounting for 38 percent of the total investment. CRCC has won half of the contract.
The rest of investment will be used to purchase the construction equipment, high-speed trains and the railway operation systems, he says.
“The project is sure to benefit local people and economy. We will buy a lot of construction materials, such as sand and gravel, from local suppliers, and we will hire many workers from local community,” he says.
Tags: China Investment, Railway