Construction will start in 2009 on a 1,000km railway line dedicated to transporting coal from Inner Mongolia to Hebei province. The new line will stretch from Erdos to Caofeidian in Tangshan, sources told China Daily.
When completed, the line should help to relieve pressure on the two existing coal lines – the west-to-east Daqin and north-to-south Shuohuang – that connect Inner Mongolia’s coalfields with coastal ports. Currently, transport bottlenecks mean that only 150m tons of coal can be transported out of the autonomous region, compared with a coal output in 2008 that is expected to stand at 400m tons.
Another construction project to start next year will be the Rmb120bn second railway linking Xinjiang autonomous region in northwest China with inland cities. The new passenger line will run parallel to the existing Lanxin Railway linking Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang. When it is complete, the old 1,892km Lanxin railway will be used by cargo trains only.