Vice Premier calls for better transportation (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-04-10 08:55
Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju vowed to improve the transportation
infrastructure in an effort to ease the transportation bottleneck of the
country's booming economy.
During his visit to Beijing's neighboring Hebei Province from April 7 to 8,
Huang inspected the Daqin railway and Qinhuangdao, Jingtang and Caofeidian
ports, all of which are major forces for coal transportation system.
Daqin railway, from Datong in north China's Shanxi Province to Qinhuangdao
port in Hebei Province, is the country's first railway designed exclusively for
transporting coal. At present most of the coal produced by north China's Shanxi
Province is transported through Daqin railway, and then shipped to south China
and abroad.
In recent years, however, coal was often delayed due to the shortfall of
railway capacity and was overstocked in Qinhuangdao port. After technical
improvement, the total capacity of the railway will reach 200 million tons of
coal this year, 50 million more than 2004, while the throughput of Qinghuangdao
will reach 150 million tons.
"But still, it can not meet the actual demand of coal transportation. We
should increase the capacity of coal transportation in line with the nation's
general plan to ensure the smooth progress of its economy," said Huang.
He also urged transportation departments to use all possible means to speed
up construction of infrastructure such as railways, highways and ports and
enhance the capacity of the current transportation system.
"Considering the tense transportation situation, we should give a priority to
the transportation of important goods like grain, oil, coal, chemical
fertilizer," said Huang.
