Rail technology is the final choice for the high-speed Beijing-Shanghai railroad, according to news from Chinese Ministry of Railways on September 25. The project, involving a total investment of around 130 billion yuan (US$15.7 billion), is to be completed in 5-6 years.
At the China Railway Construction Summit being held in Hangzhou, the construction project of the hi-speed Beijing-Shanghai Railway becomes the focus of attention from the attendees. Feasibility studies on the project are under way.
People from the said ministry present at the meeting claimed that the existing Beijing-Shanghai Railway has a total length of 1,463 km, whereas the 1,300-km projected hi-speed railroad is planned to use rail technology.
Earlier, related experts pointed out that if maglev is adopted, the total cost will amount to 400 billion yuan (US$48.3 billion), or 300 million (US$36.2 billion) per km. Whereas the use of rail technology will cost a total of 130 billion yuan, 100 million (US$12.08 million) yuan per km.
The Economic Newscast of CCTV quoted a personage from the Ministry of Railways by saying that under the contract, construction of the project will be divided into several parts, for instance, track-laying will be undertaken by Chinese enterprises, while rolling stocks respectively by firms of Germany, Japan and France through competitive bidding. Of these three source-lands of hi-speed railways in the world, Germany puts emphasis on maglev technology, while Japan and France take rail technology as primary.
(People's Daily September 29, 2003)
