An official from the Guangzhou Metro Corporation said the state-owned company would continue to import new equipment and technology to help with the construction of this provincial capital's advanced subway system.
Despite mostly using domestically made products, the municipal government is not averse to importing advanced equipment and technology to help build the city's Metro Line II, which has now been under construction since February, the official said.
All the purchases that have taken place in previous years were open and fair and conducted via international public bidding, the official said.
All the companies concerned have been given the chance to export their products to China to help build the city's Metro Line II, the official added.
Metro Line II, the second subway line in Guangzhou, will cost a total of 10.67 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion), 1.3 billion yuan (US$155.4 million) less than was previously thought, thanks to wide use of Chinese equipment and technology.
Sources from the Guangzhou Metro Corp said that each kilometer of the line will cost 500 million yuan (US$60.24 million) to build on average, while the cost per kilometer of the first subway line in the city, now in use, was 750 million yuan (US$90.4 million).
The official also attributed the cost decrease to the introduction of a bidding system to the granting of civil engineering projects as well as the introduction of a strict investment management system and stricter management over design changes.
He said more than 100 domestically made Hitachi escalators would be installed in 16 stops on Metro Line II.
Metro Line II will be 23.27 kilometer long. The first phase of the project is to be finished by 2002 and the whole project will be completed in 2004. The line goes from the northern part of the city, across the Pearl River and towards the southern areas. It will have 22 stops when completed.
More than 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) will have been invested in Metro Line II by the end of this year.
Metro Line II was originally estimated to cost 11.3 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion), said the official.
According to design plans, buildings on an area of 51,800 square meters will be bulldozed to make way for the project.
The project will use more than 1.14 million cubic meters of concrete and 180,000 tons of steel.
The city completed and officially opened its Metro Line I in February, 1999. Line I, 18.48 kilometers long, has 16 stations and has the capacity to handle 1.13 million passengers daily.
(China Daily 10/31/2000)
