(Yicai Global) June 25 --  China's state-owned railway network operator has received a number of complaints regarding a strange smell in its new bullet train model 'Fuxing,' operational in 23 regions in the country.

"After getting off the train, I had a sore throat and a cough, and I suspected at that time the amount of formaldehyde exceeded the standard," one passenger told China Business Journal. Complaints from stewards are more than those from passengers, another interviewee related to the China Railway Corp. said, adding that the reason might be because they spend more time on the trains than passengers.

The Beijing-based railway firm has embarked on self-investigation regarding the smell hazard and it has requested CRRC Corp. to exercise strict control over the train's production process.

Fuxing was first deployed on the Beijing-Shanghai route last year. The domestically designed vehicle lifted the maximum speed of trains to 400 kilometers from 300 km per hour and cut the travel time to 4 hours and 24 minutes. The journey is more than 1,300 kilometers.

In comparison to its predecessors, Fuxing has a slimmer outline, is less noisy, and lowers energy consumption by 17 percent every hundred kilometers. The train is also suggested for foreign railway projects such as the Jakarta-Bandung route in Indonesia.

Editor: Emmi Laine