THE country yesterday commenced construction of its first natural gas pipeline bound for the Xiong’an New Area, according to the China Oil & Gas Piping Network Corp.

With a total length of 413.5 km, the pipeline begins in North China’s Tianjin Municipality and stretches to neighboring Hebei Province, where the new area is located, the company said. Designed to have an annual transmission capacity of 6.6 billion cubic meters, the pipeline will require a total investment of 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.31 billion). China announced its plan to establish the Xiong’an New Area on April 1, 2017, aiming to relieve Beijing of functions non-essential to its role as the national capital and to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

(Xinhuay)