Construction will hopefully start this year on two railways
linking China's westernmost Xinjiang with the central Asian nations
of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, sources with the regional
government of Xinjiang said.
The 6.2-billion-yuan (US$861 million) railway linking Korgas on
the China-Kazakhstan border with China's inland railways, expected
to be completed within this year, will extend westward to join the
Sary-Ozek railway of Kazakhstan to become the second crossborder
rail link between the two countries.
The new link will ease the burden of Alataw Pass, the largest
land port in northwest China which handed 5 million tons of
train-laden exports last year, up 60 percent from 2006, said
sources attending an annual meeting on regional trade Saturday in
Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Meanwhile, preparatory work has begun on the
China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, which starts from Kashi
(Kaxgar) in Xinjiang and extends through Kyrgyzstan to
Uzbekistan.
Upon its completion in 2010, experts say the railway will
provide a faster link between western China and central Asia and
improve the southern passageway of the new Euroasia continental
bridge.
Currently the only rail linking Xinjiang with central Asia is a
460-km line between Urumqi and Alataw Pass where it connects to
Kazakhstan railways.
China and its central Asian neighbors have been carrying out
feasibility studies to improve their railway network amid growing
trade in recent years.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2008)