The last section of the double-track line of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, one of the major north-south trunk lines in China, was put into operation Friday.
Construction on the Longchuan-Dongguan section of the double-track line, with a length of 220 kilometers, began in March 2001. The project cost a total of 2.698 billion yuan (US$325 million).
The Beijing-Kowloon Railway connects China's capital to Kowloon in Hong Kong. The single line of the railway was put into operation in 1996, but a dramatic surge in the number of passengers and amount of freight has made construction of a double-track a necessity.
(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2003)
