Railway investment to be capped at 700b yuan in 2013

China's railway construction investment will be capped at 700 billion yuan ($112.35 billion) in 2013, a slight increase compared with this year's figure, the China Securities Journal reported on Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Railways, the investment on railway fixed-assets is valued at 630 billion yuan this year, among which 516 billion yuan were for railway infrastructure construction.

The annual national railway work conference is expected to be held soon, during which the investment plan for China's railway construction for next year will be announced.

From January to November, the investment in China's railway fixed-assets was 506.97 billion yuan, an increase of 3.1 percent year-on-year, and accomplishing 80 percent of the annual plan in 2012.

In the same period, railway infrastructure investment increased 9 percent from a year earlier to 431.93 billion yuan.

Industry insiders said the government is not likely to reduce the scale of railway investment over the next three years.