ZHEJIANG Province in Southeast China is planning a high-speed coastal railway. It hopes the line will eventually extend north to Shanghai and south to Guangdong forging closer ties with the Pearl River Delta.

If all goes to plan, the journey time between Shanghai and Shenzhen could be cut to eight hours from 29 hours, the South China Morning Post reported Tuesday.

The plan for a 260km line linking Ningbo and Wenzhou still needed Central Government approval, the report said. The estimated cost of building the line is 15 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion).

A Zhejiang planning official said: "This is a completely new railway line. We have passed the project to the Central Government for approval and hope to start construction this year."

The Ministry of Railways could not be reached for comment.

The cities involved are now linked by a roundabout railway route through the provincial capital of Hangzhou.

Ningbo is also considering building a rail bridge across Hangzhou Bay to cut the journey time to Shanghai and bypass Hangzhou.

Zhejiang's planners aim to extend the Ningbo-Wenzhou line a further 321km down the coast to Fuzhou in Fujian Province at a cost of 19.6 billion yuan.

If work on this section begins this year, it is hoped the line would be ready in 2008. It would be funded by Zhejiang, Fujian and the Ministry of Railways, the planning official said.

The Zhejiang Railway Construction Investment Co., one of the railway project's investors, said the line could then be extended to Xiamen in Fujian and Shenzhen.

Assuming trains could reach speeds of 260km/h on the route, the travel time between Shanghai and Shenzhen could be cut to eight hours, the company said.

Advocates of the line said it would increase passenger traffic between the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas. They also said it would be easier for factories in Zhejiang and the rest of the Yangtze River Delta to ship goods via southern ports as an alternative to using eastern ports.
 

Editor: Wings