Urumqi Railway Station, which serves as the largest and most advanced high-speed railway junction in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, officially commenced operations on Aug 12, local media reported.
The station, which is located in Urumqi Economic and Technological Development Zone, occupying an area of 100,000 square meters with a total investment of more than 2.5 billion yuan ($37.69 million), began construction in June 2013 and was completed this July.
Urumqi Railway Station is the terminal station of Lanzhou-Xinjiang High-speed Railway.
Currently, serving as Xinjiang’s biggest comprehensive transportation hub, the station handles all high-speed trains arriving in Urumqi and another 38 trains bounding for cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Zhengzhou. It is expected it might eventually handle 240,000 passengers per day.
The station is well-integrated with local transportation systems, with onward bus and subway connections, as well as taxi stands. The area continues to be a magnet for investment, with an additional 45 projects worth some 40 billion yuan having been approved.