China to invest $119bn in rail expansion move

BEIJING: China has grand plans of expanding its railway network, including building high-speed tracks this year, officials said.

The feasibility study for the flagship project - the Sichuan-tibet railway - will be completed by June, they added.

The Chinese government is ready with a massive $119 billion investment for the railway sector, Lu Dongfu, the Communist Party of China (CPC) chief for China Railway Corporation, announced at the country’s annual parliament session.

The total expansion plan for 2019 is 6,800km, Lu said, of which 3,200km will be high-speed tracks for trains that travel at speeds of over 300kmph.

By the end of 2017, China had put into service 127,000km of railway tracks - up 150% from 1978 when the country started its reform, the National Bureau of Statistics said last year.

The statistics for China’s highspeed train track record is a “miracle”, claimed a state media report on Wednesday.

“Since the first high-speed train at the speed of 350kmph was put into service in 2008, China has cumulatively constructed 29,000km of high-speed railway, which occupies more than twothirds of the world’s total mileage, creating a miracle in engineering construction,” People’s Daily reported.