THE Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link, which connects the two cities across the banks of the Pearl River, will feature both road and rail services, according to a response from Shenzhen Development and Reform Commission to local lawmakers recently.

In the reply, the commission said that the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link was drafted in the Guangdong Expressway Network Plan (2018-2035). The Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link will be built to the standard of a high-speed railway, with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

It will connect with the Shenzhen-Shanwei High-speed Railway in the east and be part of the Shenzhen-Nanning, Shenzhen-Zhaoqing and Shenzhen-Zhanjiang railways.

The Shenzhen transport bureau has initiated research on the project.

In the plan, the link serves a dual function as a high-speed rail and intercity rail. It connects to the Shenzhen-Shanwei High-speed Railway at Xili Station, has a stop at Qianhai and goes under the Pearl River to Zhuhai. The bureau plans to use Xiaochan Island and the surrounding land, which has been reclaimed from the sea, as a landing point for the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link. The landing point will be connected with the Outer Ring Road, which links Qianhai, Baopeng Passage, Nanping Expressway and Yueliangwan Boulevard.

The preliminary design of the link has a bridge in the east and a tunnel in the west, but the bureau has said that the scale of the work required for the tunnel project, which incorporates both high-speed rail and road, is unprecedented and presents many technical challenges. It has suggested building separate tunnels for the road and the high-speed rail. As to the construction of the bridge section, the bureau said that further study is needed to determine whether the infrastructure should combine both the rail and road.

At the annual session of the city’s legislature earlier this year, many lawmakers put forward suggestions on building the link to cut the trip between the two cities to 30 minutes. Now it takes two to three hours to drive from Shenzhen to  Zhuhai, as they are separated by the Pearl River.

It a proposal, local lawmaker Liu Bang said the construction of the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link will enhance Shenzhen’s connectivity with cities along the western bank of the Pearl River.(Han Ximin)