China plans to invest around 2 trillion yuan (nearly 293 billion USD) in railway construction over the next three years.
At least 700 billion yuan will be poured into the construction every year, Wang Zhiguo, Vice Minister of Railways, was cited by Xinhua News Agency as saying on August 10.
This is part of China’s efforts to upgrade its railway system which is currently overloaded due to economic development and increasing travel demand.
"In the first seven months of this year, China invested 247.49 billion yuan in railway construction, up 136 percent year on year," Wang said.
He said that about 20,000 km of new railways will be approved for construction by the end of next year.
By the end of this year, China will have a total of 86,000 km rail lines, second only to the US , according to Wang.
China sets to have 120,000 km rail lines by 2020 and it expects more jobs as well as socio-economic development in areas where the railway runs through./.