Zhengzhou, capital of China's most populous province Henan, is planning to invest 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in a 26-km subway line.

The subway, which will not be ready until 2013, will run from west to east in the city of more than 3 million residents and is expected to transport about 1 million passengers a day in 2020 when the population exceeds 5 million, according to sources with the Zhengzhou municipal bureau of urban planning.

Zhengzhou has shifted away from the construction of a light railway as planned in 2000 to the building of an underground system as a subway is more likely to complement the city's development blueprint, the sources said.

The subway plan has been sent to the Ministry of Construction and the State Development and Reform Commission for approval.

Source: Xinhua