China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group, a subsidiary of China Railway, is estimated to scale its railway investment to over CNY75bn ($11.6bn) in the Yangtze River Delta in 2021 with a total investment of CNY1tr expected within the next five years. The Yangtze delta accounts for about one-fourth of China’s GDP.
The investment will add a total operating mileage of 4,000km, of which 3,500km will be a new high-speed railway. According to media reports, the total operating mileage will reach 17,000km with 9,500km of high-speed railway. The railway expansion will continue consuming steel rails and require the production of additional rail cars for goods and passenger trains.
2021 is the first year of a 14th Five-year Plan for the company under which it plans to begin 17 key infrastructure projects that also include high-speed rail expansion. Twenty other projects including the South Riverside Intercity Railway and the Shanghai-Suhu Railway will be continued through the year until completion. The company also plans to open a new line that will cover 833km with 11 projects in operation.
The prior five-year plan saw the larges investments made by China Railway to-date, with the largest number of new lines put into operation at an investment of CNY430bn, which increased the line by 30.2pc to 12,846km. High-speed rail mileage increased by 85pc to 6,008km in the period. The company invested $68bn in the region in the five years 2016-2020.
($1=CNY6.49)