Investment in transportation projects rises 6% in H1

China has invested 1.45 trillion yuan ($207 billion) in the railway, highway, waterway and civil aviation in the first half of this year, a 6 percent increase year-on-year, according to an official from the Ministry of Transport.

Of the investment, 325.86 billion yuan was in railways, 1.08 trillion yuan in highways and waterways, and 40.1 billion yuan went toward the civil aviation, said ministry spokesman Sun Wenjian at a news conference on Thursday.

The investment in second quarter saw a fast recovery, with the investment growth reached 21.8 percent year-on-year driven by the investment in highways and waterways that contributed 85.5 percent of the total investment.

The ministry will continue to expand the fixed-asset investment, and actively promote a batch of major transportation projects to construct, including Sichuan-Tibet railway, Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge, highway from Xinshi town of Yibin city to Panzhihua in Sichuan province, and some transportation projects in poverty-stricken areas.

With the normal living and production order recovering gradually from the second quarter, the rate of work resumption in delivery enterprises at highways and waterways sectors reaching 98.8 percent, with work resumption rate in the passenger and freight transport enterprises hitting 98.1 percent and 99.6 percent, respectively.

The cargo volume saw a positive growth of two consecutive months in May and June, with the growth at 0.4 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.

In the first half of this year, the freight volume reached 19.87 billion tons, falling 7.8 percent from same period of last year. However, the numbers of China-Europe freight trains dispatched and delivery business bucked up, with the growth exceeding 25 percent and 20 percent.

The cargo throughput saw a year-on-year increase of 0.6 percent to 6.75 billion tons in the first six months, and the figure in the second quarter jumped 5.2 percent from a year earlier, staying strong for third straight month since April.