The state should make extra efforts to build railways in the southwest China in the next five years to ease strained railway traffic in the region, suggested a deputy to the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) Saturday.
Teng Yuhe, who is in Beijing to attend the Ninth NPC fourth session scheduled to open on March 5, said that railway traffic has become a "bottleneck" impeding economic development in southwest China.
He said that although more than 21 billion yuan (2.53 billion) have been spent in railway construction in the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, and Chongqing Municipality during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000), two-thirds of the region's cargo still cannot be transported to other parts of the country and abroad.
According to Teng, director of the Chengdu Railway Administration, in the past several months, around 11,000 railway cars were needed daily, sometimes even 14,000 a day. However, his administration can only provide some 4,800, he said.
Last year, more than half of the 60 million tons of goods could not leave Guizhou Province due to limited railway capacity, said Teng.
He suggested that the state should, during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), invest heavily in constructing railways to connect southwest China with northern, eastern and southern parts of China, especially railways leading abroad.
Teng suggested that the railways be build for separate passenger and cargo transportation.
Teng said that railway transportation in southwest China contains great market potential.
The Chengdu Railway Administration registered a transportation revenue of 33.8 billion yuan (US$4.07 billion) in the 1996-2000 period, an increase of 92 percent over the 1991-1995 period, Teng said.
March 3, 2001
Source: www. People.com.cn
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