Railway operators from Beijing, Shanghai and some other major
Chinese cities, along with big international names including
French-based Alcatel and US-based General Electric (GE), yesterday
converged on Beijing for the country's first annual urban railway
conference.
The participants are striving to explore ways to operate urban
railway "as a transport means, a complicated economic phenomenon
and culture."
There is now great enthusiasm for investing in railways across the
nation, as this mode of transport proves very convenient in cities
with more than 1 million people.
Zhou Xiaoqin, a railway expert with the China International
Engineering Consulting Co-operation, said this enthusiasm is rooted
in the opening up of the sector, allowing non-State funds to
participate in the construction and operation of urban
railways.
Beijing has vowed to ensure good transport facilities for the 2008
Olympic Games. But in view of the increasingly severe traffic jams
in the city, the increased development of railways ranks high on
the municipal government's list of solutions.
"Beijing has vowed to increase its total length of railways to 300
kilometres by 2008 and to over 1,000 kilometres by 2020," said
Zhou. "Diversifying the sources of investment will help manage the
huge financial injection required."
Although not specifically targeting the railways, Liu Yongfu,
director of the Beijing Municipal Construction Committee, did
disclose on an earlier occasion that the diversification of funding
sources to finance construction of the city's major engineering
projects will be more common in the future.
According to Liu, a lack of funding has already caused the
postponement of the construction of several major roads, such as
the Sixth Ring Road, whose construction will start next year, one
year late.
Zhou also disclosed yesterday that as many as 20 railway
construction projects in 15 cities are under examination and
subject to government approval.
The State Development Planning Commission recently issued a
circular stipulating that only cities of "considerable" economic
strength are qualified to construct urban railways. But it cannot
change the fact that many Chinese cities are vying with each other
for a share of the country's planned 800 billion yuan (US$96.4
billion) State-investment for urban railways during the 10th
Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), according to Zhou.
By
the end of 2005, the number of cities with urban railways will
increase from the present four to more than 10.
(China Daily October 24, 2003)
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