With the Chinese economy slowing down, there are signs that Beijing is 'discreetly' introducing stimulating measures by injecting money into urban rail systems, with trillions of yuan in new spending planned.
Some 3 trillion yuan (HK$3.7 trillion) will be spent to build 6,100 kilometres of urban railway from 2011 to 2020, says Zhang Guohua, vice-chairman of the Transportation Institute of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.
Recently, 28 mainland cities have received official approval to build rail lines, Zhang said during the China International Forum on Urban Mass Transit in Shanghai.
In recent weeks, two substantial contracts have been awarded.
Sinohydro, a Chinese state-owned dam and infrastructure construction firm, announced yesterday that late last month it had won a 16.85 billion yuan contract to build the metro line No7 in Shenzhen.
On May 31, China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC), a Chinese state-owned rail construction firm listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, said yesterday that it had signed an agreement with the government of Qingdao, Shandong province, to speed up subway construction in the northern Chinese port city. Since 2008, CRCC has won more than 15 billion yuan of contracts in Qingdao in roads, rail, tunnels, bridges and metro railway, said CRCC.