Three of Beijing"s new subway lines will be completed before the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games, an official in charge of the project has revealed.
Construction has begun on four of the 24 stops on the No 4 subway line, according to the Beijing Urban Construction Group, the project"s general contractor.
"It"s the first time in the world that construction of three subway lines in a city was launched simultaneously," said Liu Hongtao, deputy general manager of the Beijing Municipal Rail Transport Construction and Management Company.
The north-south No 4 line, which will have a total length of 28 kilometres, begins at Majiapu on the southern Fourth Ring Road and ends at Longbei Village in northern Beijing.
In the meantime, workers have completed 44 per cent of the civil engineering work for the No 5 subway, said Liu.
The No 5 subway project, extending 27 kilometres, will start from Taipingzhuang on the northern outskirts of Beijing and end at Songjiazhuang in the south.
Construction has also started with eight of the 22 stops on the east-west No 10 subway, said Liu.
Beijing now has 95 kilometres of urban rail line in operation, of which subways account for 54 kilometres.
The city will have up to 300 kilometres of subway lines by 2008.
By then, subways will carry at least 20 per cent of passenger traffic in Beijing.
