The heralded Yantai-Dalian railway-ferry line project was formally launched this weekend with the establishment of a project management company.

The Yantai-Dalian railway-ferry line - connecting Yantai Port to Yangtouwa Port of Dalian - will span 79.4 nautical miles across the Bohai Sea and is expected to involve 3.1 billion yuan (US$373 million), according to the newly-established company.

Some 2.2 billion yuan (US$265 million) will be poured into the construction of the line and the purchase of three ferry boats with the remaining investment funds covering operation and management costs.

Supported by China's Ministry of Railways, Shandong and Liaoning provinces and the city of Dalian, the China Bohai Sea Railway-Ferry Co Ltd was established on Saturday in Yantai, East China's Shandong Province.

The company will now start seeking investment for the project.

Construction of the project is expected to begin soon and take three years to complete.

On completion the line will span East China's Jiaodong Peninsula of Shandong Province and Northeast China's Liaodong Peninsula of Liaoning Province.

The railway-ferry line will slash billions of yuan off transportation costs and cut travel distances by up to 1,000 kilometres, business insiders said.

It will connect railways in northeastern and eastern provinces more efficiently, forming a 2,200 kilometre-long route from Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai in the east.

The railway is expected to have a transportation capacity of 6.5 million tons a year when it is first put into operation and an anticipated transportation capacity of 12.4 million tons a year in the long run, officials said.

( China Daily January28, 2002)