SHANGHAI (AFP) — Work on a long-awaited high-speed rail linking Beijing and Shanghai is expected to start by late 2007, with a budget that could exceed initial estimates by 50 percent, state media said Wednesday.
Construction on the project will "surely begin before the end of this year," the China Daily reported, citing an unnamed source with the Ministry of Railways.
The State Council, or cabinet, approved a feasibility study of the 1,318-kilometre (820-mile) line last month, the paper said, citing a notice from the National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planner.
Trains would be running at speeds of up to 350 kilometres (220 miles) per hour), cutting travel time between Beijing and Shanghai from the current 10 hours to less than five, according to the report.
The project, which had been on the drawing board for more than 10 years and expected to start construction last year, was delayed as the central government moved more cautiously after it realised how costly it would be, it said.
The project could eventually cost more than 200 billion yuan, according to insiders quoted by China Economic Net, a website controlled by the official Economic Daily newspaper.
This compares with original estimates by the railway ministry putting the cost at just 130 billion yuan.
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