A high-speed railway connecting Guangzhou, the provincial capital, to Zhuhai Special Economic Zone, which borders Macao, will be built by South China's Guangdong Province.

Construction of the 140-kilometre track will begin this year, Yang Tusheng, general manager of Guangdong Railway Group, said Tuesday, adding that the 20.8 billion yuan (US$2.51 billion) project will be completed by 2007.

The province and the Ministry of Railway will equally share the cost of construction.

Yang said his group is in talks with companies from the United States, Germany, France and Japan to import technologies and equipment for the project, which will not use the expensive magnetic-levitation option.

It will take about 40 minutes for the train journey compared with the two hours needed for a car ride on the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Expressway.

The project, which is expected to be extended to Macao in the future, will have 14 stations and link major cities and towns in the western part of the prosperous Pearl River Delta.

Trains will leave every eight minutes from each end and the journey will cost about 50 yuan US$6) -- about the same as the current bus fare.

The line will be able to handle more than 250,000 passengers a day by 2011 and 775,000 by 2033.

The link is just one part of the railway network the government plans for the Pearl River Delta area -- invest more than 108 billion yuan (US$13 billion) to link Guangzhou with major cities in the delta.

Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua said the province will build nine inter-city railway tracks covering more than 930 kilometers before 2020.

About 60 billion yuan (US$7.17 billion) will be invested by 2010 to build 330 kilometers.

In addition to the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Railway, construction of high-speed railway projects connecting Guangzhou to Shenzhen and Dongguan in the eastern part of the delta will start before 2010.

Domestic and overseas companies are encouraged to participate in the building and management of the projects.

(China Daily March 3, 2004)