China plans to invest 700 billion yuan (US$103 billion) on another 4,600 kilometers of high-speed railways this year, the general engineer of the Ministry of Railways said.

There are already 10,000 kilometers of high-speed railways under construction across the country.

He Wuhua, also a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the high-speed railways already under construction include routes between Beijing and Harbin, Harbin and Dalian, Hefei and Fuzhou, Beijing and Wuhan as well as Shanghai and Nanjing.

Meanwhile, high-speed railways in use now stretch 6,552 kilometers, including the Beijing-Tianjin High Speed Railway that has trains reaching maximum speeds of 350 kilometers per hour. He said this route is China's first self-developed high-speed railway.

China will expand its high-speed rail network to be the world's largest in the coming three years with a total length of 13,000 kilometers, earlier media reports said.

By the end of 2012, China will have more than 110,000 kilometers of operational railways, including 13,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, according to Liu Zhijun, Minister of Railways.

China will bring 26,000 kilometers of new railways into operation between this year and 2012, including 9,200 kilometers of high-speed rail, Liu said.

Based on the calculation that 1 kilometer of high-speed rail costs 100 million yuan, the 9,200 kilometers of high-speed rail would cost more than 900 billion yuan.

China currently has about 3,300 kilometers of operational high-speed rail, according to the Ministry of Railways.

Last year, China completed two long- distance high-speed railways, one between Wuhan and Guangzhou, the other between Zhengzhou and Xi'an.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai-Nanjing Intercity Railway will be launched on July 1.

With a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour, it will only take 1 hour to travel from Shanghai to Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, 50 minutes less than bullet trains.

Stretching 300 kilometers, there are 21 stations on the route, four in Shanghai. Train intervals will be as short as 3 minutes.

(Shanghai Daily June 7, 2010)