The first phase of this South China city's subway is now under
construction, a senior official from the commanding office said
this weekend.
The work entails
building 19.5 kilometers of subway, including the eastern
part of Line One and the southern part of Line Four.
The tube will run
from the eastern part of the city, across the city's busiest
artery Shennan Road and towards the western and southern areas.
It will have 18 stations, including one on ground level and
13 buildings along Line One. The Exhibition Center will be
the interchange station for the two lines.
The subway will
link Luohu port in the city's Luohu District and Huanggang
port in the Futian District, two busy checkpoints on the Hong
Kong-Shenzhen border, with Lawwu and Lak Machau ports in Hong
Kong.
Construction is
expected to be done within four years and trial operations
will begin in 2004. The second phase will start then.
Overall investment
for the first phase construction is expected to reach 10.6
billion yuan (US$1.2 billion). The local government will bear
70 per cent of the cost, and the rest will be raised through
loans from various banks
Constructions will
require road closures, but the Communications Bureau has taken
a series of measures to assure disturbance of every day activity
will be kept to a minimum.
Also, the Metro
Company will hold several events for the public to explain
the subway's blueprint, its characteristics and its benefits,
hoping to gain the people's support.
The subway project
has been the city's most ambitious construction program ever
and is critical to the city's future economic and social development,
said You Fuyong, vice-general manager of Shenzhen Metro Co
Ltd. It was listed as the top priority for Shenzhen's 10th
Five-Year Plan (2001-05).
Shenzhen's subway
program largely depends on local companies who won parts of
the project through public bidding, You said.
By doing so, it
will help boost a large number of domestic upstream and downstream
industries and accelerate their technology upgradings, he
added.
He also revealed
that the light-rail program slated to start next year, together
with the subway and current bus transportation system, will
all link in an efficient network.
The new network
will certainly ease the city's increasing traffic congestion
and improve the environment, You said.
(China Daily 03/26/2001)
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