Guangdong, south China's economy engine, has built up a transportation system including ports, highways, railways and airlines in line with its economy development, but the province's railway construction still falls behind of the province's actual need for boosting its cooperation with other provinces and regions.

In order to adapt to the development demands, Guangdong has launched 6 railway projects in the first 7 month of 2007, with a total investment of 7.2 billion RMB, and another three projects are expected to start construction in this year, according to a railway construction working meeting, co-host by China's Ministry of Railway (MOR) and Guangdong government in Guangzhou on August 29.

The six projects under construction are: Wuhan-Guangzhou railway (including new Guangzhou railway station), Guangzhou-Shenzhen railway, Guangzhou-Zhuhai intercity rapid rail transit, Luoyang-Zhanjiang railway (Guangdong section), Litang-Zhanjiang railway.

The Litang-Zhanjiang railway will play an important role in increasing economic and social development in the western region of Guangdong.

The surge in railway construction was sparked as early as 2003, when Zhang Dejiang, Party Secretary of the Guangdong province and Liu Zhijun, Minister of MOR both agreed on the province-ministry cooperation to accelerate the railway construction of Guangdong, especially the main lines and cross-border railways.

Guangdong government signed an agreement with the MOR in 2004 to cooperate in 14 projects, with an investment of 190 billion RMB, covering a total of 2800 kilometers of railways. At the same time a related working team was set up, presided by the Executive Vice Governor of Guangdong province and Vice minister of MOR respectively.

Editor: Yan