China's First Local Government-Funded High-Speed Railway Starts Tests in Shandong
Liu Jing | Tang Shihua
DATE:  Aug 02 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
China's First Local Government-Funded High-Speed Railway Starts Tests in Shandong China's First Local Government-Funded High-Speed Railway Starts Tests in Shandong

(Yicai Global) Aug. 2 -- Eastern China's Jinan-Qingdao high-speed railway, of which the local government owns the majority stake, has begun testing to enter operations at the end of this year.

The government of Shandong province, which is home to both cities of Jinan and Qingdao, has an 80 percent stake in the project, and state-owned China Railway Corp. holds the rest, state-backed Xinhua News Agency reported. The total funding is CNY60 billion (USD8.8 billion).

A project which is mostly funded by a local government is rare as China's state-owned enterprises, such as China Railway Corp., usually take majority stakes in infrastructure upgrades. Beijing has called for more private-public partnerships, under which a privately held corporation finances a project and thereby earns the right to operate the finished route while collecting annual fees from the government.

The Jinan-Qingdao railway runs the distance of over 300 kilometers from the capital of Shandong province to a popular tourist city of Qingdao, while creating a two-hour traffic cycle within the province. The designated speed of the route will be 350 km per hour.

The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Lanzhou high-speed railway, which started construction on March 15, is also mainly privately funded.

Editor: Emmi Laine

 

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Keywords:   High-Speed Railway,Local Government Investment,Private Investment,PPP