First foreign-funded railway to be started by year-end

The US-based New Energy Investment has bid for a Chongqing railway project, promising a total of 300-500 million yuan investment to build the Fuling sections of Nanfu railway and Fuli railway, according to an article carried on International Finance News.

Currently, the US company has signed a contract of intent with Fuling Foreign Trade and Economic Commission. If everything goes smoothly, the first foreign-funded railway in China will be started by the end of this year.

Jia Wenquan, a high-ranking official with the US company responsible for Asian-Pacific operation, said during an interview with International Finance News that they found this project at the Xiamen fair (ninth China International Investment and Trade Fair) a few days ago. Chongqing is a populous city with rich energy, which means huge investment potential in the local transportation.

The initial calculation shows that the total investment of Nanfu railway totaled 2.1 billion yuan. And the annual cargo transport capacity of the railway could reach 3.5 million tons and the passenger transport 300,000. It is estimated that the annual profit could hit 190 million yuan.

The railway will be co-operated with local railway department upon its completion in accordance to the contract of intent reached by the two sides. Now the project has been fully funded and will be started by the end of this year if everything goes smoothly.

The Fuli railway starting from Fuling district in Chongqing municipality to Lichuan in Hubei province is a section of Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu railway included in the medium-to-long-range programme for national railway development. When the railway is put into operation, the travel time from Chongqing to Shanghai could be reduced to 20 hours from current 42 hours.

By People's Daily Online