Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (4155)	1/13/2005 2:10:57 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

China to Double Spending on Rail Building By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: January 13, 2005 Filed at 9:15 a.m. ET SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China will spend more than $12 billion on railway construction this year, almost double last year's amount, as it rushes to expand its overloaded transport networks, state media reported Thursday. The government plans to more than double the length of its expressways network over the next 30 years to 53,000 miles from the current 21,000 miles, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Zhang Chunxian, minister of communications, as saying Thursday. Advertisement With its railways turning away two-thirds of cargo due to lack of capacity, China is engaged in a frenzy of transport construction: modern deep water ports, slick new airports, even a train route line across Himalayan permafrost into Tibet. The expressways network, virtually nonexistent 20 years ago, includes seven routes extending from Beijing, nine from north to south and 18 from east to west, the report said. Eventually, it will connect all Chinese cities with a population above 200,000, it said. An expanded network should make it easier for trucks to transport goods. The estimated cost of such construction is 2 trillion yuan ($242 billion), Zhang told a news conference in Beijing. In decades past, most highways even to major cities were only two-lane roads, lined by windbreaks of skinny trees. Now, cities like Shanghai are encircled and crisscrossed by elevated highways, underwater tunnels and numerous ring roads. Expressways traverse countless mountain ranges and huge waterways like the Yangtze River and Yellow River. But many remote villages are still reached only by foot paths. Despite its ambitions to develop a modern highway system, China's top priority for now isexpanding and upgrading its overloaded railways. The Ministry of Railways, will launch 58 new projects and continue 48 existing ones in 2005, Xinhua said. Spending on such construction will almost double over the amount spend in 2004 to 100 billion yuan ($12 billion), the railways minister, Liu Zhijun, told a conference in Beijing. Liu said the ministry plans to finish 450 miles of new lines, 330 miles of double-track lines and 550 miles of electric rail routes. Work will also start on 500 miles of new lines and 250 miles of double-track lines, Xinhua reported. Beijing authorities are signing agreements with provincial governments to gain access to land and financing for the projects. They will also seek corporate and foreign investment and issue bonds to help support the massive building effort, the report said. Though most construction is likely to be handled by domestic firms, France, Japan and Germany are among countries hoping to win major contracts for high-speed rail lines. nytimes.com