The preparatory group for construction of the Wuhan-Guangzhou passenger express rail announced Friday that they would raise 24 billion yuan (about 2.9 billion US dollars) from at home and abroad in building the trunk rail.

It will be the first time for China to invite investors into construction of its trunk railway lines.

Investment in railways in China had long been monopolized by the governments at central and local levels.

Information from the preparatory group, with headquarters in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, said the raised funds would make up about 20 percent of the 116.6 billion yuan ( approximately 14.05 billion US dollars) needed in financing the Wuhan-Guangzhou passenger expressway railroad, while the Chinese Ministry of Railways would provide another 51 percent, and the local governments in the three provinces of Guangdong, Hunan and Hubei, where the trunk rail will traverse, will cover the remainder.

China Railways Construction and Investment Company has been entrusted by the Chinese Ministry of Railways to be the representative of investors and the controlling stake holder in the Wuhan-Guangzhou express railway, which broke ground for construction on Thursday near Liuyang Bridge in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province.

Before this Friday, the government-monopolized financing in railway construction was preoccupied with building another 45-km railway line inside western Zhejiang Province, east China, years ago.

The cost of 650 million yuan (about 78.3 million US dollars) for building the railway road, from Quzhou to Changshan, both in Zhejiang, was shared among the Shanghai Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of Railways, Changshan County Government and Changshan Cement Co. Ltd., a private company in Zhejiang, according to a ratio of 35 percent, 32.5 percent and 32.5 percent.

With a length of 989 km, Wuhan-Guangzhou express railway will start at the new railway station of Wuhan, the most vital city on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and end at the new railway station in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, one of China's gateways to the outside world.

The north-south trunk rail route is designed with a travel speed of more than 200 km per hour. Upon its completion in 2010, Wuhan-Guangzhou express rail will take over the passenger transport task now handled by Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, another south-north trunk rail.

By then, a trip from Wuhan to Guangzhou will only take four hours, as against the present seven hours, and the Beijing- Guangzhou railway line will only handle cargo transport services.

China currently has a total railway mileage of 74,400 km in operation, of which 24,900 km are made of double tracks, and another 19,000 km are electrified railroads.

The Ministry of Railways has adjusted the traveling speed on 16, 500 km of the railway lines five times since April 1, 1997, in an effort to improve efficiency of passenger transport by rail across the country. The average traveling speed for passenger trains now stands at 65.7 km per hour.

In accordance with a blueprint for medium- and long-term development of railway networks approved by the State Council, China's governing body, there will be 100,000 km of railways in operation by the year of 2020.

It is estimated in the next 15 years, two trillion yuan (about 240.96 billion US dollars), or 130 billion yuan (about 15.66 billion US dollars) a year, will be spent on construction of railway networks in China.

Source: Xinhua