Shanghai's massive Hongqiao transportation hub, which includes an airport and a network of railways, has surpassed expectations by earning 500 million yuan (HK$609 million) last year alone, an official says.
The figure was far above the 50 million yuan annual revenue target of the project's proponents, Hong Kong Airport Authority and Shanghai Airport Group, when the hub opened in 2010, said Liu Wu Jun, chief technical officer at the Shanghai firm.
'That [revenue] surpassed our expectations,' Liu said at the recent China International Forum on Urban Mass Transit held in Shanghai.
The 26 square kilometre Hongqiao Comprehensive Transportation Hub - built in Shanghai, the mainland's largest city by population - includes an airport, high-speed railway lines, a metro railway and transport access to surrounding highways.
It also has 3.7 square kilometres of land available for development, one square kilometre of which was sold to property firms including the mainland's Vanke and Hong Kong-listed Shui On Land.
Through these land sales, Liu said the airport authorities had already recovered the 57.3 billion yuan investment needed to build the hub. Last year, Shui On bought land at Hongqiao for 3.19 billion yuan for an eight billion yuan mixed-use development project - and, as Liu says, 'Shui On is just a small part of our property business'.
The hub's construction required 26.7 billion yuan, with an additional 30.6 billion yuan needed for land acquisitions and the relocation of residents in that area. It is one of the costliest transportation hubs in the nation, Liu said.