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New railways to be built in Xinjiang

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-11 12:58

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is expected to build nine railways covering more than 2,000 km to link the region with other parts of the country and central and south Asia before 2020, a local railway official said on Thursday.

The lines will include a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway, a China-Pakistan railway and seven railways linking the region with the neighboring Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and Qinghai and Gansu provinces, said Wu Jian, Urumqi Railway Bureau deputy head.

The new lines will provide a faster link between western China and central Asia and improve the southern passageway of the new Euro-Asia continental bridge.

Xinjiang opened its first railway in 1962. Currently, it has more than 3,000 km of railways and another 2,200 km of track is under construction.