The China Railway Corporation will be implementing new railway projects this year. (Photo : Getty Images)
China's railway projects will be underway as 35 of them will be starting this year. The projects are all railway expansion initiatives, according to the Economic Information Daily.
There will be 800 yuan allocated for the new 2,100-kilometer new railway line, 2,500 km of double-track lines and 4,000 km of electrified railways this year. The main contractor is the China Railway Corporation.
The budget allocation is the same as what was released last year.
Yang Yudong, the vice-minister of the Ministry of Transport, said that the country intends to spend 3.5 trillion yuan for the construction of the railway in the 13th Five-Year Plan.
The railway will focus on bridging the eastern and western portions of China. The ministry's target is to implement more railway projects to complete 124,000 kilometers of the railway by 2020.
The world's largest railway network has a total of 22,000 kilometers.
Outside China, the country is also boosting railway projects under the One Belt, One Road Initiative, a plan that intends to connect China with Europe, Africa, and South Asia.
China's railway projects are the main component of the One Road Initiative because China wants to form ease of trade with their trading partners.
However, the European Union wants to investigate the ongoing construction of a 350-kilometer railway connecting Budapest and Belgrade.
The EU wants to investigate the project's profitability and if they are adhering to EU laws.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said, "The commission services are assessing the compliance of the project with EU law. The dialogue with the national authorities is ongoing."
There is news circulating that the awarding of the contracts for construction may not have complied with regulations of the union, specifically from the Hungarian side.
A senior official said, "If push comes to shove and if it turns out that the Hungarians have awarded a public works contract of a particular dimension without tender they will, of course, have infringed EU legislation."
