Construction of two new subways, Lines 7 and 14, will start late this year, according to an official from the Municipal Committee of Communications.

Zhou Zhengyu, deputy chief of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, said on Tuesday that planners would also do their best to get started on Line 15 this year. That line will link Shunyi, which lies near the Beijing airport in the northeastern suburbs, to the downtown area.

When work starts on Lines 7 and 14, there will be nine lines in progress with a combined length exceeding 200 km.

"Eight of the nine projects will have been finished by 2012, when the national capital will have 14 subway lines and routes in service will have reached 400 kilometers," said Zhou.

There are eight subway lines in Beijing with a total length of 200 km. They are Lines 1, 2, 5, 10, 13, the Batong Line (an extension of Line 1), the airport express and a branch that links the Olympic Green with Line 10.

The projected Line 7 will start at the West Railway Station of Beijing and end in Chaoyang District, east Beijing. It will be 17 km long and cost about 8.8 billion yuan (about 1.26 billion US dollars).

According to the website of the municipal commission of development and reform, Line 14 will be 42.2 km long. It will begin at the "Marco Polo Bridge", pass the Beijing South Railway Station and end in the northeast.

Line 14 will be built in two phases. Initially, 30 km of this line will be completed at a cost of 18 billion yuan. Detailed designs for this line, however, are still being modified and finalized.

Zhou added Beijing would have a rail network of 561 km by 2015, and new towns in the seven suburban areas of Beijing, such as Changping, Shunyi and Mentougou, will be connected to the center city by light rail or subway.

(Xinhua News Agency October 2, 2008)