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 percent 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 distruptions 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)