An official from
China's Ministry of Railways has lately stated that
China will invest at least RMB 700 billion ($102.5 billion) in railway
construction within the next three years.
At the request of the central government,
China's Ministry of Railways has completed a total investment of RMB 337.5 billion ($49.4 billion) in railroad
construction since the last quarter of 2008, up 88.6 percent year on year.
In the first seven months of the current year, the ministry has already completed railway infrastructure
investments worth RMB 247.49 billion ($36.2 billion), registering an increase of 136 percent as compared with the same period of last year, and equal to nearly half of the total planned
investments of RMB 600 billion ($87.8 billion) for the current year. Meanwhile, by the end of July the Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway project, which was officially commenced last year, had used
investments of RMB 84.37 billion ($12.4 billion), 38.8 percent of the total planned investment in the project.
China is expected to add 5,600 kilometers of new railway lines to the country's rail network by the end of the current year, bringing the total for the country up to 86,000 kilometers. If this expectation is fulfilled,
China will take the place of
Russia as second-ranked country in terms of number of railway kilometers, behind the US in first place.
According to its plans,
China is targeting a total of 110,000 kilometers of railways by 2012.