Wuhan, the most important industrial city on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, will construct seven new rail lines for urban transport in the coming decades.

The lines will consist of six subways and one light rail road with a total length of 28.87 km, of which the initial phase of the Huangpu-Zhongguan elevated highway, the city's first light rail that extends 10.234 km in Hankou District, has been finished and put into operation, said Liu Yuhua, board chairman of Wuhan City Track Transport Company.

According to Liu, the entire construction will cost 100 billion yuan (about US$12.1 billion), most of which will be met by fund raising. Extension of the light rail line, the No. 2 subway, which will connect Hankou and Wuchang, and the No. 4 subway, which will link up Wuchang and Hanyang, will begin soon and be completed by 2010.

He hoped that with the addition of these lines, by the year 2050, the city will be blessed with an urban track transport network that is 220 km in length and is capable of handling 50 percent of the city's public transport demand.

Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, is divided into three parts -- Wuchang for political affairs, Hankou for commercial affairs and Hanyang for cultural affairs -- by the mainstream of the Yangtze River and Hanjiang River, Yangtze's tributary.

Thirteen bridges have been constructed on both rivers to facilitate travel between the three parts along with regular ferry services on the two rivers. There is no subway spanning the three parts thus far.

Latest statistics from the local administration for public transport show that motor vehicles in this central Chinese city, a hub for land and water-based transportation, exceed 600,000.

 (Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2004)