(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-03-17 16:45

A new round of railway construction is making its way to Fujian Province, according to vice governor Zhang Zhinan. In the next few years, Fujian will build an average of one high-grade railway every year and the Fujian railway network will total 4,000 kilometers by 2020, he said.

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The Wenzhou-Fuzhou railway will be operational this year, and so will the Fuzhou-Xiamen railway next year, followed by the Longyan-Xiamen railway, the Xiamen-Shenzhen railway and the Xiangtang-Putian railway.

Lagging traffic, and especially railway problems, have hindered Fujian's economic and social development for a long time.

The Ministry of Railways and the Fujian provincial government signed three "meeting conslusions" on December 17, 2004, November 23, 2007 and March 8, 2008 respectively to promote the railway construction in the province.

The Hengfeng-Fuzhou railway electrization reconstruction will be brought under the "2008 Railway Construction Plan" and will start within the year, according to the most recent "meeting conclusion", launching a new round of railway construction on the mainland side of the Taiwan Strait.

The Ganzhou-Longyan double-track railway also will strive to start construction next year, becoming a great railway channel between Kunming and Xiamen. The Beijing-Shanghai express railway will be extended from Bangbu station to Fuzhou, traveling through Hefei, Huangshan, Wuyishan and Nanpin, and becoming a major express railway channel between Beijing and Fuzhou.

The latest "meeting conclusion" also mentioned the Nanping-Sanming-Longyan railway, the Gangping-Quanzhou-Xiaocuo railway reconstruction, and the Changting-Yongan railway construction, improving the Hangzhou-Guangzhou and Kunming-Quanzhou railway channels.

Meanwhile, preliminary work on the Quzhou-Ningping railway, the Fuzhou-Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Longyan inter-city railway, the coastal freight railway, the Wuyishan-Jianning-Longyan railway and the Zhangzhou-Gangwei railway will start as soon as possible.