China Daily reports that Beijing will add 250 kilometres of working subway lines to its existing 54 kilometres in time for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, or up to 65 kilometres of new subway lines a year.
Beijing is now building three major subway lines simultaneously, and according to China Daily it’s the first time any city has undertaken a mass transit project on this scale, Liu Hongtao, deputy general manager of the Beijing Municipal Rail Transport Construction and Management Company said
Liu said 44 per cent of the civil engineering work on the south-north line has already been completed.
The projects are part of a massive building program that will see Beijing operate 300 kilometres of subway in time for the Olympics in 2008.
Planners say by 2008 subway transportation will account for a least 20 per cent of passenger traffic in Beijing.
