Most of the infrastructure work has been completed on the western section of Beijing's light railway, from Xizhimen to Dongzhimen, and will open by the end of June 2002, according to sources from the Beijing Urban Engineering Design and Research Institute.

"We have completed 80 per cent of the viaduct construction, railway stations and roadbed construction," said Wei Yi, the institute's deputy chief engineer, who is responsible for the project design.

Public bidding on equipment, including trains, rails and electricity supply systems, has started, sources from the Beijing Urban Railway Stock Co Ltd said.

The track will begin to be laid next month, according to Wei. To reduce the noise caused by the trains, special acoustic celotex boards will be set up at Zhongguancun, the site of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and in residential areas.

The decibel levels in areas around the railway will meet the national standard, promised the engineer.

With an investment of 6.6 billion yuan (US$780 million), the entire line will open by the end of 2002.

Started in October last year, the western part will run from Xizhimen, a communications hub, to Huilongguan, a residential area covering 8.5 million square metres and home to 230,000 residents.

With a total length of 40.9 kilometres, mainly split between regular and elevated tracks, the railway project has 16 stations.

The urban railway will go through Zhongguancun Science and Technology park and is one of four major projects for Zhongguancun this year.

The railway will markedly cut the time required to travel from the northern neighbourhoods to central Beijing and will invite more people to move out of downtown districts.

Xizhimen and Dongzhimen, the two terminal stations of the railway, connect with the ring subway and many public transportation lines. The planned traffic flow will be more convenient for passengers, according to Wei.

The construction of the railway has promoted the real estate market to heat up in areas around the line, especially in Huilongguan and Xisanqi.

In addition to this line, another two rail lines, one running north/south and the other running through the eastern Fourth Ring Road to Tongzhou District, are under construction.

According to the latest plan, the rail network includes 13 lines, with a total length of nearly 400 kilometres.

Twenty cities in China are preparing for the construction of subways or light railways.

(China Daily 07/13/2001)