China to start 45 new railway projects

The China Railway Corporation has planned to start 45 new railway projects in 2016.

The total length of the new lines is over 3,200 km, of which over 1,300 km are high-speed rail, the People's Daily reported on Friday.

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In 2015, China invested 823.8 billion yuan (about $127 billion) on railways. Investment was made in 9,531 km of new lines, of which 3,306 km were high-speed rail.

By the end of 2015, the network length in China reached 121,000 km and the length of high-speed rail in operation was over 19,000 km, accounting for 60 per cent of the world's total.

Chinese Vice-Premier Ma Kai recently emphasised that as this year is the first year of the 13th Five-Years Plan, related departments must work hard to guarantee the completion of 800 billion yuan of investment in railway.