Work on a major railway connecting Lanzhou, capital of northwest China’s Gansu Province, with the southwestern city of Chongqing, has begun.
The 820-km, double-line electrified railway, co-invested by the Railway Ministry, Gansu and Sichuan provinces and Chongqing Municipality, is expected to open to traffic in 2014.
The railway will cut the distance on the route from 1,466 km to 820 km and the travel time from 22 hours to less than 7.
Trains are expected to run at 160 km per hour, with a daily capacity of 50 trains.
RMB2 billion ($293 million) will be spent in environmental protection, about 2% of the total cost.
The May 12 earthquake had a minor effect on the railway. Huang Yanbin, chief designer siad the railway designers used a detour around geologically dangerous areas.
Source: China View