Joint business venture funds Beijing airport Metro

Construction of a metro line connecting the Capital International Airport and downtown Beijing is to start shortly and should be completed in time for the Olympics.

Construction of a metro line connecting the Capital International Airport and downtown Beijing is to start shortly and should be completed in time for the Olympics, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency.

The new trains will complete the journey between Dongzhimen city centre station and the international airport terminals in some 16 minutes.

This compares with at least 30 minutes by taxi on an uncongested expressway.

The line is designed to greatly improve access to the city centre and return to the airport for the millions of visitors expected to fly in during the period of the 2008 Games.

Beijing's Municipal Commission of Reform and Development spokesman Lui Jan said that the line will be 27.3 km in length, 3.6 km of which will be underground between the city centre and the Sanyuanqiao interchange point with the subway system.

The airport line is the first rail project in the city to be funded without government subsidy.

The cost is estimated at 5.4 billion yuan ($670 million), being raised by a joint venture of five domestic companies.

Yu Le, chief designer of the project, said that the trains would be the first in Beijing to be equipped with linear motors, which are more efficient than traditional electric traction and much less noisy.

No decision has yet been made on which type of linear motor technology will be employed, but this will not delay invitation of bids for the new railway, said Yu Le.

New style new towns planned to encircle Beijing.

Chen Gang, director of the Beijing Commission for Urban Planning, was quoted on China's CRI radio network recently as forecasting that as many as 11 new satellite towns will be built around Beijing in the final phase of the current city plan.

Plans for three of the towns on the lines of sustainable communities have been already been submitted to the city government for approval.

Chen Gang explained that the development of Beijing used to be centred around the downtown areas, with Tian'anmen Square as the core.

"But as the urban population grows, traffic and environmental problems have come to the fore".

"So the city requires more space outside the circle".

Population densities in some parts of the old city are said to have reached as much as 20,000 per square kilometre.

Each of the new towns will be serviced by light rail transit systems which will account for more than 60 per cent of transportation needs.

The plans include provision for good quality hospitals, schools and colleges, shopping centres and recreational facilities.

They are also envisaged as 'green' towns, providing at least 18 sq m for every resident, with grass areas in view at every 500 metres.

Chen Gang predicted that the new towns would be home to 5.7 million people, mixed communities comprising people moving out of the overcrowded downtown areas of the city, new residents from local rural communities and some from outside the capital.

But he said that the planners did not want to house more than 5.7 million, due to the imbalance in the environment feared from too great a population.

"That is the limit, and we will hold to that", he said.

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