100m yuan per km to build high-speed train in Guizhou

Testing phase of Guiyang-Guilin railway has been delayed to the end of this August, according to Guizhou-Guangzhou high-speed railway construction headquarters on Wednesday.

Guiyang-Guilin railway is one segment of Guizhou-Guangzhou high-speed rail. Its testing time may be delayed to around August 25 because there are not enough trains for comprehensive test, but it will not affect the opening time of the whole railway at the end of this year.

Guizhou-Guangzhou high-speed project stretches 857 km, with the total investment of 91.81 billion yuan ($14.8 billion). It starts from Guiyang North Station, running through 21 stations in total, with Guangzhou as its main terminal.

The length of railway in Guizhou province is 301 km and total cost will be 30.5 billion yuan. Due to its complex topography and too many tunnels and bridges in Guizhou, which pose a great challenge to build the high-speed rail, the construction cost amounts to 100 million per km.

"The railway is a big interlocking machine involving various departments. If one step is not ready, the whole system cannot be implemented," said the person in charge of Guizhou-Guangzhou railway construction headquarters.

The high-speed railway construction work now runs smoothly and it is expected to be put into use at the end of this year, he added.

According to provincial railway construction office, Guizhou has completed railway construction investment of 15.4 billion yuan in the first half of this year, with year-on-year growth of 30.5 percent.

Other than Guizhou-Guangzhou railway, high-speed rails from Guiyang to other places are also under construction and it is expected that Guiyang-Changsha railway will be put in use in May next year, with the journey taking only two hours.