More regional transport projects in the pipeline

The construction boom of railway networks and airport clusters across the Yangtze River Delta will further promote economic ties in the region, said experts.

According to Shanghai Securities News, which cited a source from the Shanghai Railway Bureau, about 226.2 billion yuan ($32.84 billion) will be poured into 12 railway projects across the Yangtze River Delta region this year.

The 164-kilometer Husuhu Railway, which links Shanghai, Suzhou of Jiangsu province and Huzhou of Zhejiang province, is one of the 12 projects, and it is expected to cost 41.8 billion yuan. After its completion, the Husuhu Railway will enable travelers to get from Shanghai to Huzhou in less than an hour.

On the aviation front, another 16 airports will be built in East China by 2020, bringing the region's airports tally to 61, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on its official website.

The new airports are part of the nation's plan to create three world-class airport clusters - the Yangtze River Delta region, Pearl River Delta region, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster - by 2025, said the NDRC.

Zhu Ronglin, a Yangtze River Delta region development expert from the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that it is necessary to enhance the transportation efficiency within the region, including airports, railway, high-speed railway and inter-city railway, if the government is to develop the region into an economic belt.

Li Lei, an industrial analyst from Minzu Securities, said that the construction of transportation infrastructure also requires adequate service and management upgrades so that the facilities can operate smoothly.

"In the past, the cities within the region have made a lot of efforts in building high-speed roads, but private cars cannot undertake all the passenger transportation, and the growing number of vehicles is causing environmental and traffic problems," said Zhao Min, a professor from Tongji University who specializes in urban planning.

According to Zhao, the 12 railway projects are only the beginning of a construction boom that will enable cities in the Yangtze River Delta region to better connect geographically and economically. He added that the average cost of building a 1-kilometer railway is between 100 million yuan and 200 million yuan, which means that the 226.2 billion yuan investment is far from enough to meet the transportation demand within the region.

"It is projected that the cities within the Yangtze River Delta region will need to rely on inter-city transportation solutions to handle 500 million passenger trips in 2020, and a large investment in railway construction can be one of the major solutions for reaching such a goal," said Zhu.

The State Council expects another 200 million people to transition from rural dwellings to urban spaces in the coming 15 years, paving the way for the formation of a megacity region. According to Xiao Lin, director of the Development Research Center of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, the Yangtze River Delta region, which includes Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou, is the most likely in China to become such a region within the next three decades.

As such, said Zhao, the need for a more sophisticated transportation network is imperative for supporting the region's growth.

"This transport network should include airports, inter-city railway for medium- to long-distance transportation, subway systems, bus rapid transit and buses for shorter trips within a city, so that passengers can easily make transitions from one to another," said Zhao.

wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn