Source: People's Daily

Financing may be an obstacle for the already delayed high-speed rail service connecting Beijing and Shanghai, but the Ministry of Railways claims construction is about to begin.

The high-profile rail project has an official price tag of 170 billion yuan ($21.8 billion), but could exceed 200 billion yuan ($25.6 billion) according to experts. Construction of the project will begin within the year and is expected to be mostly complete by 2010, said Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun on Wednesday.

But insiders said investment may fall short of the sky-high budget, which is almost the same as expenditure on the Three Gorges Project, and could again see the railway fall behind schedule. The ministry said last April it would begin laying the track by the end of last year, the Beijing Business Today reported.

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Posted by pichu at January 13, 2007 10:19 PM