The 139.8-kilometre track will cost 20.8 billion yuan (US$2.51 billion) and be completed for traffic in 2008.

A feasibility study of the project will be completed by the end of the year and if given the green light, construction is expected to start before the end of 2003, according to an unnamed official from the Guangdong Provincial Development Planning Commission.

The link, which is expected to allow rolling stock to hit 120 kilometres per hour, starts from Dashi Township in Guangzhou's Panyu District and ends in Gongbei in Zhuhai, the official said.

It will take 47 minutes to complete the journey, while currently it takes about two hours in a car to reach Guangzhou from Zhuhai on the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Expressway.

The new railway will be connected with Guangzhou's Metro Line 3, which is now under construction.

The project, expected to be extended to Macao in the future, will include 14 stations and link major cities and townships in the western part of the Pearl River Delta.

In addition to Guangzhou and Zhuhai, the cities of Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Shunde and Xinhui will also benefit from the railway in the coming years.

A pair of passenger trains will run between Guangzhou and Zhuhai every eight minutes and the journey will cost about 50 yuan (US$6), competing with the bus fare, which is about the same price.

The line will have the capacity to transport more than 250,000 passengers a day by 2011 and 775,000 in 2033.

The official said the Guangdong provincial government will use a variety of methods to help raise money for the project.

In addition to government money and bank loans, preferential policies will be given to real estate development along the railway to help attract investment.

The province is also seeking foreign financial support for the gigantic project.

The Guangzhou-Zhuhai Railway is just part of the provincial government's push to build a fast railway network in the Pearl River Delta area.

The economically prosperous Guangdong Province plans to build more than 900 railway tracks to link major cities within the delta to further improve the transport options.

It will cost more than 90 million yuan (US$10.84 million) to complete the network, which will help link major cities in the province to the neighbouring Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

Earlier this year, Guangdong decided to build another railway between Guangzhou and Foshan.

Construction of the 22-kilometre-long link is due to start in the first half of 2003 and is expected to be completed in three years.

(China Daily November 27, 2002)