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City rail tunnel to transform New Zealand's biggest city

Xinhua, June 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Work officially began Thursday on one of New Zealand's biggest ever infrastructure projects -- an underground rail line the government claims will be a catalyst for billions of dollars in development in the largest city of Auckland.

Construction of the 3.4-kilometer City Rail Link (CRL), to be funded by the Auckland Council and the central government, was estimated to be around 2.5 billion NZ dollars (1.7 billion U.S. dollars), said Transport Minister Simon Bridges.

"With Auckland's population predicted to grow by more than 700,000 people over the next 30 years, the CRL will play an important role in getting people in and out of the city with ease," Bridges said in a statement.

The rail tunnel, first mooted almost a century ago ,was a source of contention between local and central governments for years, before the central government relented earlier this year and agreed to help with funding.

Auckland, which straddles a narrow isthmus in the north of the North Island, is home to a third of New Zealand's population and has been plagued for decades with inadequate public transport and traffic congestion.

Mayor Len Brown, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony with Prime Minister John Key, said the project would transform the city forever.

The city's transport agency was forecasting in the first year of operation an 88-percent increase in rail passengers travelling to the city center and a 40-percent increase in rail patronage across the network in the morning peak.

During the past decade, Auckland's rail patronage had increased from 2.2 million trips a year to pass 16.2 million in April this year, Brown said in a statement.

However, rail networks to the west and south of the city came to a dead end at the city center, limiting the rail network to 15,000 trips an hour.

The CRL would connect the lines, allowing the movement of 30,000 people an hour in peak times.

"The CRL provides the single best solution to meet demand for access to the city center, to support the city's fast growing economic development," said Brown.

The private sector was planning 7 billion NZ dollars (4.78 billion U.S. dollars) worth of new investment around the CRL area, which would create more than 13,000 new office jobs and 7,000 new retail and construction jobs. Endit