Beijing has mapped out plans to build three more subway routes to provide faster traffic links between the city center and the outer areas.

Construction will start before 2010 on Huangcun Subway Route linking the downtown areas with Huangcun, a satellite city in southwestern Beijing, No. 15 Route, a light rail route to Shunyi District in the northeast, and No. 11 Route running through the southern part of the city, said sources attending a meeting Thursday on Beijing's communication work in the coming five years.

The planned No. 11 Route will be connected with two new routes whose construction will probably start later this year -- the No. 9 Route and a light rail track to Yizhuang, a booming economic and industrial zone southeast of the city.

Between now and 2010, Beijing will complete and put into operation four new subway routes, including a route to the Olympic village in the north and a subway line to the Capital International Airport.

By the end of 2010, some 270 kilometers of urban railroad will be operative in Beijing.

Besides underground and light trail routes, Beijing will complete a high-speed urban road network consisting of 380 kilometers of high-speed road and 1,400 kilometers of trunk roads. By then, a car drive between any two places on the Fifth Ring Road will take less than an hour.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2006)