An opening ceremony marking the launching of the Neijiang-Kunming Railway into service was held at the South Liupanshui Railway Station Sunday. At 9:45 am, Train 28016 was seen slowly pulling out of the south Liupanshui station.

"Construction of the Neijiang-Kunming Railway, most arduous as it is, is by no means an easy job to build it in four years. High tribute should be given to our builders. Their labor will push great economic growth and social progress and help remove poverty in the minority areas", said Zhu Yongji, premier of the State Council in regard to the construction and putting into operation of the Neijiang-Kunming Railway.

Building the Neijiang-Kunming Railway has been a strategic decision by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. Starting from Neijiang of Sichuan in the north to Kunming of Yunnan on the south, it connects the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway and Ankang-Chongqing, Chengdu-Kunming and Baoji-Chengdu Railways in the north and the Guizhou-Kunming and Shuicheng-Boguo Railways and the Hunan-Guizhou and Nanjing-Kunming Railways in the south. A trunk line, it links up Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, providing a shortcut and an outlet for southwest China to the seacoast of South China.

The Neijiang-Kunming Railway has been built over a distance of 872 km, with the Neijing- Anbian and Meihuashan-Kunming sections included as the northern part built early in the 1960s. Known as the central part of the Neijiang-Kunming Railway starting from Shuifu in Yunnan to Meihuashan in Guizhou the new rail line has been built to a length of 358km passing through three provinces including Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou.

A difficult giant undertaking launched from Sichuan Basin to Yunnan and Guizhou, the Neijing-Kunming features a high elevation and great complexity of topography and many a varied climatic conditions. Tunnels cut add up to a total length of 148.86 km, bridges 41.8 km, making up 53.9 percent of the whole project of railways built. Completely electrified, the Neijing-Kuming Railway is reported going to operate with an annual 14m-ton transport capacity and a daily number of 8 pairs of passenger trains. Construction launched in June 1998 had its completion in September 2001, altogether to a cost of 12 billion yuan.

( People's Daily May 13, 2002)