Xinjiang high-speed link to play key role in Silk Road initiative
Print Edition
THE first high-speed railway in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region became operational yesterday, cutting the travel time between regional capital Urumqi and the eastern city of Hami by half to three hours.
The 530 kilometer line, with a designed speed of more than 200kph, is part of the 1,776 kilometer Lanxin high-speed railway line linking Urumqi with Lanzhou, capital of the northwestern province of Gansu, which will be put into service by the end of the year.
The railway crosses a vast expanse of the Gobi Desert and windy areas. It will be connected further with China’s booming high-speed rail network to play a key role in the nation’s Silk Road Economic Belt initiative aimed at boosting cooperation with central and western Asian nations.
The Xinjiang railway bureau said a high-speed railway connecting Lanzhou and Beijing is under construction and due to be completed by 2017. It will reduce travel time between Urumqi and Beijing from 41 hours to 16.
Xinjiang sits in the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.
The management committee of Horgos Port at the China-Kazakhstan border said the railway would expand the flow of people, goods and capital and help improve the port’s international standing.
The original Lanxin track has a capacity of around 75 million tons per year, which is far below the increasing demands of freight and passengers.
The new line, however, will unleash the region’s transport capacity by handling most passenger travel and enabling the old line to focus on freight. Officials estimate that 150 million tons of freight will be shipped via the original Lanxin line each year.
The investment promotion center in Kashgar, China’s newest special economic zone, said the expanded volume of freight will be a huge boost for Xinjiang’s import and export trade and attract more foreign and domestic investors.
According to the Shenhua Group’s energy branch in Xinjiang, eastward shipping of the region’s abundant coal is expected to become cheaper and more efficient, which will strengthen Xinjiang’s position as a key land passage to national energy security.
Additionally, cities along the new line in Xinjiang possess rich tourism resources.
“It will take just 40 minutes for tourists who land in Urumqi to go to Turpan by high-speed train, and we are looking at a 30-percent increase to the current three million tourist arrivals per year,” said Chen Shuguo, director of the tourism bureau in Turpan.
He Weigang, vice principal of the Communist Party school of Urumqi, said a convenient and efficient means of transport has become a decisive prerequisite for Xinjiang as a bridgehead for the the Silk Road Economic Belt.
“The high-speed rail, by connecting Xinjiang with the rest of China and Eurasian countries, will play an important role in regional development and economic integration in the larger picture,” he said.
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