A TRANSPORT hub integrating three Metro lines and an intercity railway will rise in the Universiade New Town area in Longgang District to enhance the connectivity of the eastern area of Shenzhen with Futian CBD and Shenzhen International Airport in Bao’an in the west, as well as Daya Bay in the city of Huizhou.

According to an environment report released by Shenzhen Metro Group published by Shenzhen Special Zone Daily yesterday, three Metro lines — Lines 3, 14 and 16 — and intercity rail Line 33, an 86-kilometer rail running between the Shenzhen airport and Daya Bay, will meet at the newly planned Universiade Transport Hub.

Work on the 4.68-billion-yuan (US$669 million) hub in western Longgang, which occupies a total floor space of 68,000 square meters, is scheduled to start in June and be completed for trial use by the end of December 2022.

The three Metro lines and intercity rail cover the eastern and northern development area of Longgang and link the rest of the city, including Futian CBD, Buji, Henggang, Longgang Subdistrict and Pingshan District.

Metro Line 3 has already been put into use while work on Lines 14 and 16 has started. The two new lines will be operational in 2022.

The planned 151-kilometer Line 33 will start from Zhongshan Station in the city of Zhongshan and end in the city of Huizhou, going through Shenzhen. The Shenzhen section will start from Terminal 4 of the Shenzhen airport and end at Kengzi Station in Pingshan District.

The Shenzhen-Daya Bay intercity rail is one of the five intercity rails that Shenzhen has planned to start construction within the year.

The five intercity lines include the Shenzhen-Shenshan High-speed Rail, Shenzhen-Huizhou Intercity Rail, Shenzhen-Daya Bay Intercity Rail, the Longgang-Dapeng spur line and the Qianhai-Huanggang Checkpoint section of the Guangzhou-Dongguan-Shenzhen Intercity Rail. The total length of the rail lines reaches 410 kilometers and the total cost is estimated to stand at 201.8 billion yuan.

Besides the intercity rails, Shenzhen will open seven Metro line sections at a total length of 107 kilometers this year.

The Universiade New Town has a natural geographical advantage due to its location in the west-central part of Longgang District. Boasting a land area of 16 square kilometers and neighboring the city of Dongguan to the west, the new town area is set to be developed into a new urban area and the core of eastern Shenzhen.

(Han Ximin)