(CRI)
Updated: 2008-01-14 15:38

The Beijing to Shanghai high-speed railway will officially break ground at a ceremony in Beijing on Friday with the start of 40 construction projects along its six sections. Chinese railway authorities, quoted in the Beijing Times report, said that completion will take five years.

A CRH (China Railway Highspeed) train [File photo]

Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun disclosed at a national conference last Friday the multi-billion-dollar rail line had been listed as the top priority in the country's railway construction for this year.

The Beijing to Shanghai Express Railway project has been under discussion for more than ten years and officially kicked off in late December after the inauguration of the Beijing to Shanghai Express Railway Company Limited.

With an estimated total investment of 160 billion yuan ($21 billion), the railway, upon its completion after 2013, will cut the travel time between the Chinese capital and its economic hub from the present 10 hours to about five hours, doubling the existing transport capacity of 160 million passengers annually.

The Ministry of Railways will fund 78.9 percent of the investment. A participant at the conference told the newspaper that the Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd will lead other insurance companies to provide a share of 13.93 percent with a joint investment of 16 billion yuan.

Another strategic partner in the project is the National Council for the Social Security Fund with an investment of 10 billion yuan. The China Development Bank (CDB), the country's largest policy lender, is also planning to buy a stake in the project, China Daily reported earlier.

Compensation fees for land requisition and relocation for the eight provinces and municipalities along the rail line is initially set at 23.3 billion yuan.

The newspaper learned from the provincial transport department that eastern China's Jiangsu Province is set to be the first to start construction on the project,.

The Beijing to Shanghai high-speed railway includes 357.5 kilometers in Jiangsu Province, which is 27.3 percent of the total length. Four of the six contracted construction sections are in Jiangsu.

Civil engineering work on the 1,318-kilometer railway is expected to cost 83.7 billion yuan and is divided into six sub-contracts.

The China Railway Construction Corporation took the lion's share of 40.3 percent, or 33.74 billion yuan (about $4.64 billion), through its two subsidiaries, the No. 12 and No. 17 Bureaus, official Xinhua News Agency reports.