China is to invest 100 billion yuan (12 billion dollars) to construct a high-speed railway line linking Beijing and Shanghai, state media reported Saturday.
The project was part of the country's 10th five-year plan (2001-2005), a ministry of railways spokesman said, according to the China Daily.
The budget represents some 40 percent of the total amount spent by China on railway construction under the ninth five-year plan (1996-2000).
Proposed construction of the railway has provoked lively debate among experts over which technology should be utilized for the line linking the country's two largest cities, the English language daily said.
"Studies are continuing," the spokesman said. "We will choose one that fits China's situation best".
Beijing held talks earlier this week on using German Transrapid high-speed magnetic suspension railway technology to build an experimental line in Shanghai between the airport and the city center.
German Finance Minister Hans Eichel had not yet decided whether Berlin would provide loans to finance the project, a German official source said Wednesday.
"Some experts say China should use the most advanced maglev system, which many believe is safe, comfortable, stable and fast," for the 1,300 kilometer (812 mile) Beijing-Shanghai line, the China Daily said.
"But opponents argue that it is unwise for China, still a developing country, to use the 'immature and extravagant' maglev technology."
The Transrapid consortium (TRI), which comprises ThyssenKrupp, Siemens and Adtranz (which wishes to leave the consortium), has yet to put the technology into commercial use, even in Germany, where a line linking Berlin and Hamburg was cancelled at the start of the year for financial reasons.
Japan's Shinkansen and the European Eurotrain consortium, which brings together France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens, are also candidates to construct a conventional high-speed line between the capital and Shanghai, a project, which has been on the cards since 1994.
Experts have also not ruled out the possibility that Beijing will do without a foreign partner and launch the project with Chinese technology based on foreign trains -- BEIJING (AFP)
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