Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

A HIGH-SPEED rail should be built to link Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong airports and the construction of intercity rail infrastructure should be sped up to enhance the connectivity of the cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen Mayor Chen Rugui said at a panel discussion of Shenzhen delegates at the annual session of Guangdong’s legislature yesterday.

Guided by the outline plan for the development of the Greater Bay Area and the requirements for building a demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Chen said Shenzhen should play its driving and radiation roles as the core engine of its own development as well as coordinated development with other cities.

In a Guangdong government work report delivered at the annual session of the Guangdong legislature that opened Tuesday, Governor Ma Xingrui said construction will start on the Shenzhen airport’s third runway, the Shenzhen-Jiangmen section of Shenzhen-Maoming  High-speed Railway, and Shenzhen-Shanwei High-speed Railway this year.

According to Shenzhen Airport Group, Terminal 4 and the third runway will be built on 4.2 million square meters of land that has been claimed from the sea. The project covers an area equivalent to 600 standard football pitches.

The third runway is 3,600 meters in length and 60 meters in width. The 9.36-billion-yuan (US$1.34-billion) project will accommodate all types of commercial planes.

Also on Jan. 14, at a work meeting of Shenzhen’s transport bureau, director Yu Baoming said that the city will push forward the construction of a satellite hall, third runway and Zhangkengjing heliport, and speed up preparatory work for Terminal 4 and a second airport.

The bureau will establish a coordinated mechanism for building the Shenzhen airport into an international air transport hub and try to open five new international routes.

The satellite hall, whose construction started at the end of 2018, will add 22 million passengers a year to the airport’s total capacity upon completion by 2021.

Work on the Shenzhen-Huizhou intercity rail, Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen intercity rail and Shenzhen-Daya Bay intercity rail will start this year.

As for Metro projects, seven Metro lines and sections, including Line 6, Phase I of Line 8, Line 10, and extensions of Line 2, Line 3 and Line 4,  will be put into service within the year. The total length of the city’s Metro network will reach 411 kilometers by the end of this year.