China’s National Development and Reform Commission stated that out of the 100 billion yuan (over 15 billion US dollars) of newly-added central government investment, 28 billion yuan (4 billion US dollars) has been designated for the construction of major transportation infrastructure, just less than the amount of investment for people’s livelihoods.
The investment will primarily be used to speed up the construction of railways, particularly railway construction in western China. The detailed arrangements are as follows: 15 billion yuan (2.5 billion US dollars) for railways, 5 billion yuan (nearly 770 million US dollars) for national expressways, 5 billion yuan (nearly 770 million US dollars) for rural highways and 3 billion yuan (460 million US dollars) for airports in central and western China.
The construction of railways include; expediting the construction of the passenger-only special railway lines including the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and Shijiazhuang-Wuhan line, coal freight passage lines such as the expansion of the Baotou-Xi’an railway, and the construction of western trunk railway lines including the natural resource-oriented Guiyang-Guangzhou and Nanning-Guangzhou lines.
Twenty-five projects have been included in the railway construction program, over 50% of which are in western China. Improvement of the railways in western China is a major task for the central government at this time.
