Chinese train manufacturer Nanche Sifang Locomotive and six Japanese multinationals have won the bid for China’s new bullet train.

The Chinese Railway Ministry’s 99.3 billion yuan (US$12 billion) project aims to double the speed of trains on five major existing railway lines to 200 kilometers per hour.

The five train lines, stretching over 2,000 kilometers, include one linking Beijing and Shenyang, in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, and another to connect the port city of Qingdao with Jinan in Shandong Province.

The six Japanese companies -- Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Itochu, Mitsubishi and Marubeni -- are expected to offer a modified version of the Hayate Shinkansen bullet train, which can run at a top speed of 275 kilometers per hour. The deal marks the first major transfer of Japan’s bullet train technology to China.

The tender has been closely watched because it may have an impact on the hotly contested 1,300-kilometer railway project linking Beijing and Shanghai. Companies in Japan, France and Germany are all bidding for that contract.

(CRI, China.org.cn August 30, 2004)