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 Program (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 kilometers, he said.

Metro lines under construction this year total 113.1 kilometers.

The official said that Guangzhou had made good headway in its traffic-related infrastructure construction in the 10th Five-Year Program (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)