This Day, That Year

Item from March 17, 1987, in China Daily: Construction crews at the Mountain Dayao Tunnel are now working day and night to dig through the last 64 meters of the 14.3-kilometer tunnel. ... The building of the rail line from Hengyang, Hunan province, to Guangzhou, Guangdong province, started in 1978.

China's railway construction has been on a fast track as annual investment surged from 580 billion yuan ($84 billion) in 2011 to 802 billion yuan last year.

The country plans to invest at least 800 billion yuan in railway construction this year alone, the Government Work Report released last week said.

Officials estimate that China will maintain the same level of investment for the next 10 years.

By 2020, the national railway network will grow by more than 23,000 kilo-meters, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). Intercity projects and those in the country's middle and western regions will get priority approval.

Meanwhile, the Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013 to boost trade and infrastructure through investment, is helping Chinese railway companies win contracts abroad.

Last year, China Railway Tunnel Group completed the Qamchiq Tunnel in Uzbekistan, the longest tunnel in Central Asia.

It is part of the 169-km Angren-Pap railway line, which improves Uzbekistan's infrastructure and enhances China's links with Central Asia.