The first domestically manufactured metro trains were rolling off assembly lines on Friday in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province, waiting for transport to Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Metro Corporation said.

Made through a joint venture of Changchun Automobile Corporation and German-based Bombardier Transportation, the first batch of six trains will serve Metro Line 2 in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

"The successful production of the first group of trains marks China moving into a new era in the metro manufacturing sector, reaching international standards,'' said Lu Guanglin, general manager of Guangzhou Metro Corporation, on Friday.

The six trains are part of a 156 trains under contract for Metro Line 2, between Guangzhou Metro Corporation and the Changchun JV. The trains were purchased under a contract signed on August 31, 2000, at a cost of 1.54 billion yuan (US$185.5 million).

However, not all the 156 trains are homemade.

The first 12 trains, made in Germany, were transported to Guangzhou earlier. The first six trains arrived by air to get there by November 29, 2002, causing quite a stir for the high freight costs, Chen Wenfeng with the Guangzhou Metro Corporation told China Daily.

The Chinese-made trains are designed to run at the speeds of 90 kilometres per hour, and have advanced controls and digital signals.

They are designed to accommodate 310 passengers -- 432 in maximum capacity -- and are expected to operate for 30 years.

The design concepts and standards, including the manufacturing process, quality guarantee systems and the project administration, all comply with international criteria.

What is important is that the homemade trains have largely reduced manufacturing costs, compared with the trains in Line 1, which were all imported from Germany.

The unit price for each self-made train is US$1.19 million, while that for the imported train is US$ 1.8 million.

The six home made trains will be transported to Guangzhou next month, and the remaining 138 trains are to arrive in Guangzhou one by one before March 2005.

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