Boost for Belt and Road Initiative as road opens
Print Edition
The Chinese section of a transcontinental expressway project set to link western China with western Europe has opened to traffic.
A key part of the project, a 10-kilometer section of road in the border city of Horgos in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which connects a quarantine area with the Lianyungang-Horgos expressway, was opened on Saturday. It marked the across-the-board opening of the expressway in China.
The 8,445-kilometer project links Lianyungang City in east China’s Jiangsu Province to St Petersburg in Russia.
In 2006, China and Kazakhstan jointly proposed building a transport corridor linking western Europe and western China. Construction of the expressway began in 2008.
Li Zhinong, deputy head of the regional transport department, said the opening of the Horgos section of the expressway would help China to further open up to the West and facilitate the economic and social development of countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative.
Wang Haijiang, deputy mayor of Horgos, said the yearly freight volume exported through the Horgos port would rise to 3.5 million tons with the opening of the section.
He said the quarantine area on the expressway was now being built.
It will take 10 days, instead of 45 days, to deliver cargo from Lianyungang to Europe when road transport replaces maritime freight.
The World Bank said the expressway project would help to increase the volume of road freight between China and western Europe by two and a half times. More jobs will come about as new companies and supporting facilities open along the roads.
Huaxin Company, a transport firm in Horgos which has been sending products and machinery to Kazakhstan by trucks, said the new expressway would help it to save time and lower costs.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
