China's first undersea tunnel for a high-speed railway is to be constructed in a section of the high-speed railway project from Ningbo to Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang Province.
According to the local railway administration, an accreditation conference for the feasibility of the project has been wrapped up in Beijing, and the plan deliberated in the conference includes an undersea tunnel, which would be China's first undersea tunnel for a high-speed railway.
The 77-kilometer high-speed railway will be the first railway from Ningbo to Zhoushan, with a design speed of 250 km/h, in which a 16 kilometer undersea tunnel is designed to connect Beilun of Ningbo and Jintang of Zhoushan.
In the project, 71 kilometers of new railway line will be built. Seven stations are designed along the route, and four of them will be newly built. Three will be reconstructed.
The conference confirms tourist traffic as the major function of the project, and intercity passenger transportation will be its secondary function.
Middle and long distance bullet trains for intercity passenger transportation among Zhoushan, Ningbo and Hangzhou will be launched after the completion of the railway.
The high-speed train will shorten the transportation time between Ningbo and Zhoushan to 30 minutes, a decrease of 75 minutes from the current transportation time.
The high-speed railway will integrate both highways and railway lines, which means an expressway from Ningbo to Zhoushan will be constructed in parallel with the high-speed railway, according to the transportation administration.
