China plans to link 80 per cent of its cities with a high-speed rail network by 2020, according to a report on Thursday.
The country will extend its high-speed track from 19,000 to 30,000 kilometers, according to a white paper released.
China will invest 500 billion dollars in railway construction over the next 13 years to help promote “smart, green and safe transport,“ agency reported.
On Wednesday, China launched a high-speed line between Shanghai and Kunming, capital of south-western Yunnan province, reducing travel time from 35 to 11 hours.
In December 2015, ex-railways minister Liu Zhijun, the driving force behind China’s rail modernisation, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
Liu was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery and abuse of power in July 2013.
Liu and his expansion programme became associated with a high-speed train crash that killed 40 people and injured 190 near the eastern city of Wenzhou in July 2011. (dpa/NAN)
