News

Banks agree $4.2bn for China’s first private high-speed railway

Chinese conglomerate Fosun has agreed a $4.2bn loan from a consortium of banks to build the country’s first high-speed railway that is majority owned by a private company.

Approved by the Chinese government in June last year, the plan is to build a 227km rail line in Zhejiang Province in eastern China. The line will allow trains to travel at 350km/h between the cities of Shaoxing and Taizhou.

Fosun will own 51% of the project, with the remainder being held by state-owned China Railway, the Zhejiang Communications Investment Group and the government of Zhejiang.

The loan was agreed with China Development Bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and two others.

The railway is expected to be completed in 2021 and will operate for 30 years.

Image: The CRH2 bullet train at Nanjing station (Kimon Berlin/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Further reading:

Story for GCR? Get in touch via email: [email protected]

Latest articles in News