A new high-speed railway will provide a faster channel of export for Midwest China's resource-rich hinterland and significantly reduce the transportation cost along the way.

The 654-km line, which will connect Nanchang, the capital of the inland Jiangxi province, and Putian, a harbor city in Fujian province, will be complete by September 2013. It will become a vital economy lifeline for provinces separated by mountains in Southeast China, and a link to the sea for the inland provinces of Jiangxi and Hunan.

"Meizhouwan Bay in Putian is one of the very few multi-berth deepwater harbors in China, but this has been underutilized for many years because of the low traffic volumes," Yang Gensheng, Party secretary of Putian, told China Daily.

"The Xiangtang-Putian railway could help extend the hinterland of the harbor to Jiangxi where there is a demand of exports."

Jiangxi province has a large reserve of minerals. The potential of exploitation for its nonferrous metal, precious metal and rare earth has surpassed the national average 5.6, 8.5 and 16 times respectively, all of which rank on top nationwide. Copper, tungsten, uranium, tantalum, rare earth, gold and silver are referred to as the "seven golden flowers" of Jiangxi's mineral reserve.

At present, 75 percent of all imports and exports from Nanchang go via Shanghai or Shenzhen, at least 800 km away. Transportation via Putian will cut the distance by 200 km.

Yang said calculations showed that transporting iron ore will cost 28.59 yuan (US$4.2) per ton cheaper from Nanchang to Putian harbor than to Xiamen, Yang said.

Although the railway will not open for three years, companies have begun to move into Putian. State-owned enterprises such as CNOOC, Chinese Railway, CNNC and SDIC, as well as some consortiums, have started several major projects with a total investment of 66 billion yuan.

Zhang Yeming, from Ansteel's cold-rolled steel construction site, said the company chose to invest 3.5 billion yuan to set up a factory in Putian because of the convenience of traffic and lower transportation costs.

Qian Leidan, a deputy chief engineer of SDIC, said the prospects of the Xiangtang-Putian railway has led the company to build a coal transshipment port in Meizhouwan bay. Qian said after the first phase of this project with a 15-million-ton capacity is completed, 7.2 million tons will be transported to Jiangxi each year.

Yang said the railway will benefit coastal cities and inland areas. "The key issue lies in how to balance the volume of transportation on the two sides."

The building of the rail line has not been without difficulties. Liu Qi, project manager of the construction enterprise China Railway, said that about 80 percent of the railway comprises bridges and tunnels, "very rare in the history of Chinese railway construction."

"Sometimes a single bridge would take over 800 days to build," he said.

"But good news is with our experiences and core technologies in construction, we have everything under control."

(China Daily September 9, 2010)