Chinanews, Beijing, December 20 – The building of the Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway will be kicked off within a month, and it is estimated that the total cost involved will reach 220 billion yuan, instead of the previous estimation of 160 billion yuan. The total length of the Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway will be 1,305 km, and it will run parallel to the current Beijing-Shanghai Railway. There will be 19 stations along the express railway. The Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway is designed for trains that travel at the speed of around 350 km per hour. When completed, it will take only 5 hours to travel from Beijing to Shanghai, while it takes nearly 12 hours by ordinary trains. Due to the highly profitable prospect of the Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway, the Ministry of Railways (MOR) plans to put in 78.9% of the total investment, while before it was said that there would be only 35% of the investment from the MOR. 10% of the investment will be from the local governments of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai, in the form of compensation for housing and land requisition. Several commercial banks have also expressed their willingness to invest in the project. Thus the MOR might not have to absorb any overseas investment.
