China has completed a feasibility study of the construction of the western route of a proposed Pan-Asian Railway that will run from Singapore, through Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar to China's Yunnan Province, a local Party official said at a press conference on Sunday.

The new 340-km-long railway section will connect Dali, an area in Yunnan Province known for its beautiful scenery, to Ruili, another Yunnan town on the Sino-Myanmar border.

The feasibility study suggests a construction budget of 10 billion yuan (US$1.23 billion) for the Dali-Ruili section, said Bai Enpei, secretary of the Yun Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. Construction work is expected to start next year, Bai said.

The proposed 2,600-km-long Pan-Asian Railway will start in Singapore, pass through Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Thailand's capital Bangkok, Yangon in Myanmar, and end in Kunming, capital of Yunnan.

Of the eastern, western and middle routes discussed, China has opted to build the eastern one first because it costs less and is easier to construct, according to Wang Minzheng, vice-director of the Yunnan Provincial Development and Reform Commission.

The proposed western and middle routes require more investment and are riddled with more technical problems.

The eastern route from Kunming to Hanoi stretches 715 kilometers, 419 kilometers of which is in China. The section from Kunming to Yuxi has been completed. Construction on another 141-kilometer-long section from Yuxi to Mengzi was started last September with a budget of 4.5 billion yuan (US$562.5 million). A feasibility study into the construction of the Mengzi-Hanoi section is underway.

The eastern route of the Pan-Asian Railway through China is expected to be completed by 2010, Wang added. 

The railway is expected to boost economic and trade cooperation among the countries involved.

(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2006)