Some 1,000 workers from the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) Fourth Harbor Engineering, one of the leading builders of the railway construction project, worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a rotational basis to ensure the process met its deadline. The overall project is due for completion in 2011, in time to begin operations in 2012.
High-speed rail travel, largely the preserve of countries such as Japan and France until the 1990s, is now sweeping across China. China’s hi-speed network will be nearly as large as that of the rest of the world’s put together when the 1,300 km Beijing to Shanghai line is completed.
A RMB220.9 billion ($31.6 billion) investment makes the route between China’s two most populous regions, the single most expensive construction project in China.
The 1,318-km-long railway line will cut the journey time between China’s capital and its eastern financial hub in half, reducing it to just five hours. It will also have a one-way transport capacity of 80 million passengers and more than 100 million tons of cargo annually, according to the Ministry of Railways (MOR).
China Daily reports that a quarter of the country’s population live in these two economically prosperous regions, with the local GDP accounting for 40% of the national total. And, again, the warning must be given this is most seriously and adversely going to affect the local airlines.