Beijing invests $78b in transport in past 5 yrs

BEIJING - Beijing invested 492.2 billion yuan ($77.9 billion) in transport over the past five years, local authorities said Sunday.

The investment represented a 44-percent increase from the 340 billion yuan in the five-year period to 2016 as the city sought to ease traffic jams and improve transport networks connecting neighboring regions, said the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport.

Seventy-five percent of the money was spent on public transport, and authorities attracted 57.8 billion yuan of investment through public-private partnership and build-operate-transfer modes, it said.

With 22 subway lines in operation, the total length of rail transit in the Chinese capital had increased to 608 km by the end of 2017 from 442 km five years ago.

Meanwhile, the total length of expressways had increased to 1,017 km from 922 km while that of arterial roads had increased to 1,365 km from 1,226 km.

As the authorities seek to integrate Beijing with its neighbors Tianjin and Hebei, they have been building more high-speed railways and highways in the region.