New rail construction upsurge is on track

Local governments are boosting rail construction, according to the 21st Century Business Herald.

Guangzhou, in South China, has invested about 300 billion yuan ($48.3 billion) in railway construction in recent years, according to a report by the Guangdong government submitted to Sheng Guangzu, General Manager of China Railway Group Ltd. The group is a major infrastructure construction company that used to be affiliated to the now abolished Ministry of Railway in China.

One of the railway projects connecting two cities in Guangdong, Shenzhen and Maoming, will start operations by the end of 2013 with a total investment of up to 60.9 million yuan. The province is also going to launch another four railway projects, with investments ranging from 12 billion to 267 billion yuan, during 2013 and 2014.

Apart from new railways within the province, Guangdong also has the Inter-City Rapid Rail Traffic Network of the Pearl River Delta underway. This line covers 1,430 kilometers of track and costs about 400 billion yuan.

Large-scale railway projects are being kicked off nationally.

In the east, a coastal high-speed line, connecting Qingdao, Shandong and Lianyungang, Jiangsu, is about to be put in place. In central provinces, a number of passenger, freight and coal lines are underway, passing through provinces and regions such as Hubei, Henan and Chongqing. In the west, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has a budget of 16.8 billion yuan for railway projects in 2013, far exceeding 11.6 billion yuan in 2011 and 12.9 billion yuan in 2012.

After the Ministry of Railway, which used to finance local railway construction, was abolished in March, local governments are raising funds on their own through issuing bonds or developing real estate alongside the railways.