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Western
Region Development: Ten Pojects scheduled
for 2000 I |
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2000-10-03
The Office of Western Development and the State Development
Planning Commission,
while formulating medium- and long-term plans concerning
western region development,
have put forward 1 0 projects to be launched in the
west in the year 2000.
1 . The Xi'an-Hefei Section of the Xi'an-NanjingRailway
The past few years saw great developments in railway
transportation in western China. However, there are
still problems, such as slow networking progress, poor
rail-way quality and low transport capacity. According
to the needs of western region development and the schedules
for railway transportation, railway development in the
western region will emphasize the expansion of the rail-way
network and construction of east-west, internal and
external passageways.
The Xi'an-Nanjing Railway via Nanyang will be a convenient
passageway linking China's northwest and southwest to
the east and central south of China, shortening the
distance in railway transport between the above regions
and optimizing the railway network.
2. The Chongqing-Huaihua Railway
The Chongqing-Huaihua Railway is of great strategic
significance to the completion of the railway network
in the southwest, forming a convenient external passageway
and promoting sustained development of the local economy
and the economy of the western region on the whole.
3. Highway Construction in the West (including national
trunk highways and roads in State-level poverty-stricken
counties)
Currently, the major problems in highway development
in western China are the small scale of highway networks,
poor availability and low technical level. According
to the preliminary plan, there will be four steps in
the overall highway development in western China. First,
while properly implementing the current
plan for the layout of national trunk highways, new
roads and highways will be built to form major passageways
that not only connect the west with the mid-east, the
southwest with the northwest, and all neighboring regions,
but that also reach major rivers and the ocean. Second,
the construction of trunk highways within western China
will be strengthened, and the quality of highway networks
improved. Third, the highway construction in poverty-stricken
areas will be strengthened, and the availability of
highways further improved. Fourth, the
construction of trunk highways that connect west China
and central China will be arranged concurrently, so
as to fully develop the transportation in western China.
4. Airport Construction in the West
At present, a preliminary airport network is taking
shape in the western region, mainly consisting of the
major airports in Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi' an, Kunming,
Urumqi, Lanzhou, Guilin, Nanjing and Hohhot and some
minor airports. However, apart from Yuannan, communication
hubs have not yet been formed in any of the
regions. There are few feeder airports, and the pattern
of air routes is largely city-to-city, rather than hubs
with flights radiating from each city. Therefore, the
fundamental principles for airport development and construction
in the western region will be implementing communication-hub
projects, developing feeder airports, improving air
route structure and enhancing efficiency.
According to this projection, construction of the Xianyang
international Airport in Xi'an will begin this year,
and a feeder airport network will be under construction
at the same time, with Shuangliu Airport in Chengdu,
Xianyang Airport in Xi'an, Wujiaba Airport in Kunming,
Zhongchuan Airport in Lanzhou, and Urumqi Airport as
communication hubs. In this way, an airport network
will be gradually formed, with major airports as regional
centers.
5. Elevated Light Railway in Chongqing (phase I, Jiaochangkau-Xinshancun
section)
Chongqing, as one of China's municipalities directly
under the Central Government, is also an important center
in the southwest region and upper reaches of the Yangtze
River However, due to topographical conditions, the
structural problem of urban transportation is very serious.
Therefore, construction of a fast-speed urban railway
system with a large capacity will effectively ease the
burden on traffic.
As the first project of its kind in the western region,
the construction of the first phase of the Chongqing
light trunk will also be of great significance to the
improvement of the urban transportation level and investment
environment in the entire western region.
6. The Sebei Qaidam Basin-Xining-Lanzhau Natural Gas
Pipeline
The Qaidam Basin in Qinghai Province is one of the
regions in China rich in natural gas. Natural gas fields
with abundant reserves have been discovered in the eastern
and western part of the basin. There is serious air
pollution in Lanzhou and Xining, the respective provincial
Capitals Of Gansu and Qinghai and two of the major industrial
cities in northwest China£®The pollution in these two
cities mainly results from the soot emitted from burning
coal£®The utilization of natural gas a clean and high-quality
energy will not only improve the energy mix and the
air quality in these two Cities£¬but will also promote
the economic development in Gansu and Qinghai provinces£®
The construction of the six Projects mentioned above
will also improve the transportation facilities in the
western region£¬1aying a solid foundation for the amelioration
of the investment environment in the central and western
regions and for the implementation of the western region
development strategy£®
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