Construction on two subway projects is expected to begin next year in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province.

The two railway lines, one about 27 km long and the other about 16 km, will both include tunnels across the Yangtze River, which will greatly alleviate the traffic load on the existing bridges.

Located at the juncture of the Yangtze River and Han Rivers, the city is segmented into three towns and traffic relies heavily on the aboveground transportation networks.

Wuhan has more than 640,000 motor vehicles in the main urban area, or 99.6 automobiles per 1, 000 people, a rate three times higher than the national average, which has become a heavy burden for Wuhan's two major bridges above the Yangtze River.

The city put a light-track system into operation last year. Moreover, a 70-km subway plan has been mapped out with a total investment of 26 billion yuan (some US$3.2 billion) to help ease the transportation bottleneck.

The first two subway projects have been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and are now open for investments from both at home and abroad, said Miao Yu, Wuhan city committee CPC Secretary.

With a population of over 8 million, Wuhan is the center of five railway tentacles, six expressways, and several highways. The city serves as the gateway to China's hinterlands and is nicknamed the "thoroughfare to nine provinces".

(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2005)