China has begun renovating a railway that links Sichuan Province's capital Chengdu and neighboring Shaanxi Province's Baoji City to better serve reconstruction in earthquake-hit areas.

Xi'an Railway Bureau dispatched more than 5,000 workers and 150 large scale vehicles to renovate the Baoji-Chengdu railway starting May 9. The repair work, covering rail grinding and railroad switch replacing, is scheduled to last 50 days.

The Baoji-Chengdu route is a key north-south railway line in west China. It had been used as a major route for transporting relief goods to Sichuan after the May 12 earthquake last year.

The 8.0-magnitude earthquake damaged the southern section of the railway and caused collapse of No.109 tunnel in Gansu Province on May 12. The collapse resulted in a blaze on a train carrying gasoline.

The tunnel was reopened to traffic 12 days later and a new tunnel was built to the north side of the old one five months later with steel-reinforced concrete. The new tunnel opened to traffic on November 12.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2009)