Cross-sea railway on track ( 2003-11-18 01:05) (China Daily)
The Yantai-Dalian Railway
Ferry Project across the Bohai Bay started construction in the coastal city over
the weekend.
The Yantai section of the project includes the 12-kilometre railway route and
a railway ferry dock. Early building work will involve a total of 56 hectares of
land and 50 hectares of sea bed.
Zhongtie Bohai Railway Ferry Co is in charge of the construction and
management of the project. It will draw on funds from the Ministry of Railway,
Shandong Province in East China, Dalian city of Liaoning Province in Northeast
China and China Railway Civil Engineering Co, according to sources with the
Yantai Transportation Committee.
Total investment in the project is 2.35 billion yuan (US$284 million). The
railway is expected to start operation in June 2006.
The project is the latest in a series of new cross-sea transport routes in
China. Yuehai Railway Ferry launched its service in January, linking South
China's Guangdong and Hainan Province.
The Yantai-Dalian line will start from Yangtouwa in Lushun District in Dalian
and end in Situdi in Yantai.
The line connects the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula and the northern
end of the Jiaodong Peninsula across the Bohai Bay, covering 79.4 nautical miles
(147 kilometres) as the crow flies.
Experts say the ferry route will become a key link between Northeast China
and the booming Yangtze River delta region in the south.
It is about 400 to 1,000 kilometres shorter than existing railway route,
which makes a circuitous loop through Beijing or Tianjin. The route will save at
least 6 billion yuan (US$700 million) in railway transport costs every year.
