China, Kunming, Feb. 15 – Chinese government has approved the construction of the Pan-Asia Railway from Dali to Ruili, the last section of the western part of the railway in Chinese territory.

The section will extend 325 kilometers in length and the total investment in the construction will reach 15.3 billion yuan. It will start from Dali, in Yunnan, travel westward to pass Baoshan and Dehong and finally reach Ruili, a land port city near China-Myanmar border. The railway will be a standard-gauge electric railway line, with a design speed of 160 kilometers an hour. Construction of the railway is expected to finish before 2011. By then, it will take only two hours to travel from Dali to Ruili by train.

In recent years, Chinese government has attached great importance to railway construction work in Yunnan Province, and the railway lines in Yunnan are beginning to be extended to China’s neighboring countries. As a result of this effort, China is going to build an international railway line between China and Vietnam, also called the eastern part of the Pan-Asia Railway. For this part, China will build the railway line between Yuxi, Mengzi and Hekou in Yunnan. At present, construction work on the section from Yuxi to Mengzi, 141 kilometers in total length, has already begun, and construction work on the section from Mengzi to Hekou is expected to finish by 2010. The middle part of the Pan-Asia Railway will travel between China, Laos and Thailand, and construction work from Yuxi to Mohan, a section that will cover 599 kilometers within the Chinese territory, is well under way. Construction work from Dali to Ruili, the western part of the Pan-Asia Railway within the Chinese territory, will begin soon.