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CONTRUCTION on a Metro line to the Guangzhou airport will start next year, while the city is to push Metro work into full swing.

Guangzhou plans to build 209 kilometers of underground railway by 2010, with an average of nearly 35 kilometers to be built each year.

The line from the Guangzhou East Railway Station to the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, nearly 29.9 kilometers, is expected to be the longest subway route in the country.

Construction will also begin on an experimental section of Guangzhou Metro Line 6 in 2005.

The route to the airport is part of the 36-kilometer Y-shaped Line 3, which runs from the Guangzhou East Railway Station and Tianhe Passenger Transport Station to the Panyu Plaza. There will be 18 stations along Line 3, of which 10 have taken shape. At the end of next year, the section from Kecun to the Guangzhou East Railway Station will open for a trial run along with the 14-kilometer special line to the Guangzhou University Town. In all, 22 kilometers will open in 2005.

The whole of Line 3 will open by the end of 2006, together with a line from Pazhou Pagoda to Huangge.

In 2006, work will start on Line 2's northern expanded section from Sanyuanli to Jiahe, Line 6 from Jinshazhou to Yantang, and Line 7's experimental section from Dashi to the new Guangzhou Railway Station to be built in Panyu.

In 2007, overall construction will begin on Line 7 from Xiaoguwei to the new Guangzhou Railway Station and Line 14 from the Guangzhou Automobile City to Aigang.

The ambitious construction scheme is to ease the increasing traffic pressure, boost the city's social and economic development and meet the demand for the 2010 Asian Games.

Guangzhou Metro Line 1 is transporting 279,000 people per day, and Line 2 is carrying 191,000 people.

Editor: Wing