North China's port city Tianjin will build nine subways in the coming three decades, with 234.7 km long in total, according to sources with the municipal development and reform commission.

An official with the commission said that the No. 1 subway in operation, together with the No. 2 and No. 9 subways under construction, and the No. 3 subway in plan, will form the underground transport frame of Tianjin before 2010, which is 130 km long in total.

In the coming five years, Tianjin will move nearly 700,000 residents from downtown area to eight satellite cities at suburb Tianjin, covering 65 square kilometers of land, to ease the traffic tension.

As the second city with subways after Beijing, Tianjin started to build subways in the 1970s. In 2001, the subway was closed after 17 years' operation, and by then, only 10,000 took subway a day.

Tianjin restarted build subways at the end of 2001, and the municipality has an ambitious plan of building nine subways, with total length of 234.7 km, within 30 years.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2007)