Beijing, Oct. 27 (wang dong) -- Japan's kyodo news agency reported today that China's ministry of railways has decided to buy Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. The technical support of 140 high-speed locomotives, which can run at up to 350 kilometers per hour, will be used on the beijing-shanghai high-speed railway and the beijing-guangzhou high-speed rail line.
The kyodo report said the ministry of railways had made a deal for up to rmb45bn (604bn yen) with Nanche Sifang Locomotive, an operator of China southern Locomotive (4.70,-0.07,-1.47 per cent). CSR sifang is the Chinese partner of Japan's kawasaki heavy industries and the only domestic company licensed by kawasaki to produce KHI high-speed locomotives.
Kyodo news agency reported that the high-speed train trains being purchased by the ministry of railways will use technology developed by kawasaki heavy on the Hayate high-speed trains that currently run on the tohoku-shinkansen northeast Shinkansen. Some Japanese companies will also benefit from the contract because some parts of the high-speed locomotives, such as engines and brakes, will be imported from Japan.
China is currently building a high-speed railway on a large scale. The high-speed railway linking Beijing and tianjin was completed and opened to traffic on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The high-speed railway from Beijing to guangzhou will be completed and open to traffic in 2012.
According to the ministry of railways tasks set out in the "long-term railway network planning", in 2020, complete the basic modernization of railway, passenger dedicated line will reach more than 12000 kilometers, all capital cities and between the large and medium-sized cities have fast passenger railway, in bohai sea, Yangtze river delta and the pearl river delta region will form the inter-city fast passenger public transport network.
