China has approved a 247 billion yuan (US$35.8 billion) railway plan to improve transport links between Beijing, the port city of Tianjin and the neighboring province of Hebei, part of a plan to integrate the three areas into a megacity.
The plan is to encompass nine projects that span a total of 1,100km, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission said in an online statement yesterday.
The projects are to be completed by 2020 and are part of a wider plan that is to stretch to 2030, it added.
The population of the three areas is estimated at about 110 million and by the time the plan is complete, the so-called Jing-Jin-Ji project is to cover 212,000km2, or more than twice the size of South Korea.
Expanding railway networks have cut commute times in the region significantly, said Steven McCord, research head at real-estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
“It was not possible to go all the way from Beijing to Binghai and that’s a one-hour trip now. It’s now also possible to go between Tianjin and Tangshan in less than 30 minutes, which was previously a several hours’ drive,” McCord said. “I think there are few places in the world that have that kind of integration. It has made it much easier to do business.”
The news helped push up shares of firms that stand to benefit from the plan.
China State Construction International Holdings Ltd (中國建築工程) shares soared 10 percent in Shanghai trading, while China Communications Construction Co (中國交通建設) shares surged 6.5 percent.
China Railway Construction Corp (中國鐵建) shares rose 5.5 percent and China Railway Group Ltd (中國中鐵) shares gained 4 percent.
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