Railway investment to hit $11.6 bln in China's Yangtze River Delta

NANJING -- China plans to earmark more than 75 billion yuan (about $11.6 billion) for railway infrastructure construction in its Yangtze River Delta this year.

China Railway Shanghai Group Co Ltd said it will kick off the construction of 11 new railway projects in the region that covers Shanghai and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.

By 2025, the delta region is expected to have 17,000 km of rail lines in service, including 9,500 km of high-speed railway.

Between 2016 and 2020, railway investment in the region amounted to 436.6 billion yuan, increasing the length of rail lines in operation by 30.2 percent to 12,846 km. The length of high-speed railway grew at a much faster rate of 84.9 percent to 6,008 km.

The Yangtze River Delta is one of the country's most economically active, open and innovative regions, and produces about one-fourth of the national GDP.