About 200 billion yuan (US$25 billion) is set to help improve
Guangzhou's transport infrastructure.
The municipal government has earmarked the money for a range of
projects in the 11th Five-Year Guidelines (2006-10).
The budget set for this year is 25.6 billion yuan (US$3.16
billion), said Xian Weixiong, head of the municipal communication
commission, yesterday.
The city will see facelifts in its airport, ports, railway
stations, expressways, bus and metro services in the coming five
years, he said.
According to the official, the second phase of the new Guangzhou
Baiyun International Airport will be completed within the five
years to expand the annual passenger handling capacity to 40
million, and annual cargo throughput to 2 million tons.
The second phase began late last year.
When completed, the airport will become one of the most
important in the world, said Xian.
He added the city would complete the construction of six
50,000-tonnage multi-functional berths as part of the scheme.
The first phase of the redevelopment of Guangzhou Port has made
Guangzhou's port cargo throughput surpass 260 million tons
annually.
And the city will make greater attempts to improve the bus and
taxi services by promoting more use of liquefied petroleum gas
(LPG) as fuel for vehicles, and improve the layouts of bus stops
and terminals.
Another 20 bus terminals and 305 bus stops will be set up in the
coming five years, and bus routes will be further modified to
better link metro stops.
Xian said the city would apply more high-tech systems to public
transport management.
The city expects to put into use nine metro lines by the year
2010, with a total length of more than 200 kilometres, he said.
Metro lines under construction this year total 113.1
kilometres.
The official said that Guangzhou had made good headway in its
traffic-related infrastructure construction in the 10th
Five-Year Guidelines (2001-05).
He added the city's monitoring and dispatch system for buses and
taxis was amongst the best in China and the existing promotion of
LPG fuel for public transport vehicles has set a good example for
many other cities to follow.
(China Daily March 2, 2006)