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Metro Construction Funded

Beijing will spend four billion yuan (about US$480 million) on three major subway lines by the end of 2004, an official with the Beijing municipal commission of construction said.

Subway lines 4, 5 and 10, with a combined length of 88.46 kilometres, will help ease traffic congestion in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics Games.

The official said construction on 70 subway sections will begin in 2005. Line 4, including stations at the Beijing Zoo, Xisi, Xuanwumen and Caishikou, is expected to ease north-south transportation in the city and surface transport difficulties along the route.

Line 10 will serve the East Third Ring Road area beginning at Songjiazhuang, then north along the Third Ring Road to Shaoyaoju before turning westward between the North Third Ring and Fourth Ring roads to Huoqiying in Northwest Beijing. An estimated 90 percent of the engineering work for loop 5 will be completed in 2005.

The Beijing metro system includes subways and light rail lines that total 114 kilometres in length, according to the commission.