Guangzhou, China, 9 Jan – The government of the Chinese province of Guangdong has earmarked US$11.7 billion for the initial phase of the inter-urban light railway linking Guangzhou to other cities in the region, daily newspaper China Daily reported.

Speaking last week at a meeting of the Guangdong political consulting conference, Governor Huang Huahua said that the provincial government would invest 350 billion yuan before 2050 in building a 1,900 kilometre rail network in the Pearl River Delta Region.

Meanwhile, the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen, Dongguan-Huizhou, Guangzhou-Huadu-Qingyuan, and Zhongshan-Nansha-Humen, projects costing 70 billion yuan, will go into operation in 2015, Huang added.

Saying that at the end of 2012 1,100 kilometres of railway would already be built, the governor noted that these projects aimed to integrate the transport network and reduce travel time between Guangzhou and all other cities in the delta to less than one hour.

At the same meeting, Huang Huahua also said that the province had budgeted 220 billion yuan for construction of a network of highways, which will total 3,000 kilometres by 2012. (macauhub)