Heilongjiang invests $25b to improve transport facilities

China’s northernmost province of Heilongjiang will pump 180 billion yuan ($25.42 billion) into constructing 51 transport projects in the coming years, according to information released at a groundbreaking ceremony held on April 1.

Officials said that in this year alone the province plans to complete the investment of 37 billion yuan, up 35 percent on last year.

They said that during 2020 the province will construct 588 kilometers of road for national highways, 1,200 km for ordinary provincial highways, 6,000 km for rural highways, as well as rolling out 950 km of railway tracks. It will renovate 1,200 dangerous bridges and expand and upgrade 11 civil aviation airport projects.

Among these, projects with individual investments topping 10 billion yuan include the Harbin-Yichuan High-speed Railway, the Harbin-Mudanjiang Passenger Dedicated Line, the Jilin-Heilongjiang Highway, the Suihua-Daqing Highway and the Heilongjiang 331 Frontier Road.

The Harbin-Yichuan High-speed Railway connects Harbin, capital city of Heilongjiang province, to Yichuan city in Heilongjiang.

It has a total length of 299.17 km, a designed top speed of 250 km per hour and the total investment will be just over 30.5 billion yuan.

When put into operation, it will effectively expand the range of the high-speed rail network in the Northeast China region, strengthen communications and commerce along the line and boost economic ties between China’s northeastern border areas and developed inland areas.

Meanwhile, the Huanggang-Harbin section of the Jilin-Heilongjiang Highway will be 182 km long and get a total investment of 13.87 billion yuan.

Officials said that as an important transportation channel in Heilongjiang, it will be of great strategic significance in improving the highway network in Harbin and promote business between Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces.