Construction of a railway linking Beijing's urban subway ring with the capital's international airport, located northeast of the city proper, will hopefully begin next year, said Wednesday's Beijing Morning Post.

The newspaper's sources at the 5th Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Co-operation Symposium said the No. 13 subway line will be 18.15 km long with 1.63 km of railway on the ground, 12.82 km of elevated railway and 3.7 km of subway.

The rail will start at Wangjingxi Station threading nine stations to end at the terminal building of the airport, reported the newspaper on the front-page.

The railway, expected to cost some 4.3 billion yuan, will adopt an auto ticket booking and collecting system. The construction will be carried out between January 2002 and December 2004, the paper said.

The municipal government promoted the project to overseas investors at the symposium in the hope to draw more funds.

By 2008, Beijing will have added 100 km of urban railways to enlarge its passenger handling capacity up to 48 million people a year.

( Xinhua News Agency 10/24/2001)