BESIDES the Ganzhou-Shenzhen High-speed Railway and the Shenzhen-Huizhou inter-city rail line, five Metro lines will also link Shenzhen with Huizhou in the future.

    They include extension lines of Shenzhen Metro Lines 14, 16, 21, 8 and 19, according to rail construction plans that are still being finalized, Huizhou’s development and reform bureau said on its official website.

    Line 14 will be extended to Huizhou South Railway Station and connected with Metro Line 1 in Huizhou. Work on the project will start after the project is approved by the Central Government, the bureau said, adding that it has been listed in the city’s overall planning and the urban rail transportation plan.

    Line 14 runs 50.6 kilometers and has 13 stations on the Shenzhen section, while the Huizhou section will have three stations and cover a distance of 9.1 kilometers.

    The two cities have initiated research on an extension of Line 21 to Xinxu Township in Huiyang District, Huizhou City and on an extension of Line 16 to Daya Bay in Huiyang.

    Metro Line 21 runs 62.5 kilometers, linking Qianhai in Nanshan District to Pingdi in Longgang District.

    The two cities are also considering extending Line 8, which is under construction, and Line 19, which is being planned, to Huizhou.

    Shenzhen is embarking on an ambitious drive to expand its Metro system to a total of 32 lines over the next 13 years, outranking Shanghai as the city with the largest subway network in the world.

    The expansion is part of efforts to provide a gigantic boost to the city’s industrial upgrade and infrastructure setup, which plays a key role in catering to business and industrial operations, as well as the greater Pearl River Delta region.

    (Han Ximin)