According to China's Ministry of Railways on February 9 that the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway project has made achievements exceeding expectations and the objectives for all construction tasks have been smoothly reached on schedule since the construction began on April 18 last year.

All major projects for 2009 have already commenced and all tunnels along the entire line will open up within the year to realize the "zero defect" goal for main construction.

Officials from the Ministry of Railways said 2009 is the second year of construction for the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway. It is also an extremely crucial year. This year, the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Railways put forward a goal of completing infrastructure construction worth 60 billion yuan in investments.

Roadbed construction is expected to be completed in the first half of the year. Within this year, they are also expected to complete lower portions of all bridges, 98 percent of beam fabrication projects, over 90 percent of beam installation projects and 50 percent of station construction, as well as the opening of all tunnels along the entire line. The acceptance rate of sub-division projects reached 100 percent, as did the inspection rate for projects that have already been built, realizing the "zero defect" goal for main construction.

According to incomplete statistics, completing 60 billion yuan of infrastructure construction investment creates demand for 2 million tons of steel and 12 million tons of cement and provides nearly 600,000 employment opportunities.

It is also learned that the operation speed for the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will reach 350 kilometers per hour. When the railway opens, it will take only five hours to travel from Beijing to Shanghai.

By People's Daily Online