China's state economic planner has approved a new railway project in the central province of Shaanxi as Beijing looks to boost infrastructure investment to halt an economic downturn, according to a report from the Dow Jones Newswires made available to EFE on Tuesday.
The railway project – which connects the province's capital city, Xi'an, and a neighboring city, Yan'an – covers 291.7 kilometers (about 181 miles), with the total investment amounting to 55.16 billion yuan (about $8 billion), the National Development and Reform Commission said.
The project is expected to be completed within four and a half years.
China has recently started to accelerate approvals of such infrastructure projects, which the government temporarily suspended last year to ease the country's problem with piling debt, Dow Jones added in its report to EFE.
A cooling economy this year, coupled with challenges brought by a trade spat with the United States, has made both the debt-control initiative unsustainable and maintaining economic growth a bigger concern.
Last week, the NDRC approved 300 billion yuan worth of rail transportation projects in Shanghai.
