Fuxing High-speed Train drives on the Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway on March 21, 2023, passing the pink sea of peach blossom in Bayi district, Nyingchi city of Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region. Photo: VCG

Fixed-asset investment in China's railway system reached 113.55 billion yuan ($16.53 billion), a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percent, data from China Railway Co showed on Sunday. 

Since the beginning of 2023, China Railway has been promoting the high-quality construction of the nation's rail network, focusing on 102 major projects, according to a statement sent to the Global Times by China Railway. 

In the first quarter of 2023, multiple key railway projects have achieved breakthroughs, with high-speed railways including Guiyang-Nanning, Fuzhou-Xiamen, and Guangzhou-Shantou all completing track-laying, according to the statement. 

Other leading projects under construction including Chengdu-Lanzhou railway, the Shandong section of Jinan-Zhengzhou high-speed railway, and others have achieved breakthroughs in major engineering projects. 

China Railway has also worked together with local governments and enterprises to speed up the construction of the transportation system linking with various transportation systems and special routes. 

In the first quarter of 2023, two logistics bases in Meizhou and Zhanjiang in South China's Guangdong Province along with 22 other routes nationwide were completed and entered commercial operation. 

China's total fixed-asset investment in the first two months totaled 5.36 trillion yuan, rising 5.5 percent year-on-year, with the amount in railway investment alone growing by 17.8 percent, data from National Bureau of Statistics showed. 

A total of 4,100 kilometers of new rail lines were put into operation nationwide in 2022, of which 2,082 km were high-speed lines. Fixed-asset investment in railways reached 710.9 billion yuan last year, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Global Times