The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 357 Beijing-Kowloon Railway
meeting room.

Liu Tao stared with his eyes wide open.

He didn't expect that the meeting he was going to attend would be about the Beijing-Kowloon Railway!
As early as 1960, the Ministry of Railways began to plan to build a north-south new trunk line, which would run from Beijing to Shantou via Hengshui, Shangqiu, Jiujiang, namely the Beijing-Shantou Railway.

Later it stagnated due to adjustments in the national economy.

Later, in 1974, the Ministry of Railways planned to build a Beijing-Jiujiang railway and conducted preliminary surveys for this purpose. However, due to various reasons, it was not included in the Sixth Five-Year Plan.

The Ministry of Railways once again proposed to build a north-south artery, but this time the route has changed. The entire railway starts from Beijing West Railway Station in the north, passes through Nanchang Station in the provincial capital, and ends at Kowloon Station in Hong Kong in the south. It passes through ten provinces and cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Hong Kong, with a total length of 2536 kilometers. The terrain of the northern part of the line is flat, while the southern part is densely populated with tunnels.

The entire Beijing-Kowloon Railway will be the largest, most invested, and longest railway trunk line in the history of my country's railway construction. After its completion, this railway will be of great strategic significance for improving the national road network layout, easing the tense situation of north-south transportation, promoting national economic development, accelerating the reform and opening up of the central region, and poverty alleviation and prosperity of the old revolutionary areas along the line, and maintaining stability and prosperity in Hong Kong and Macao.

There are 549 bridges and 126 tunnels along the entire line, with a total length of 190 kilometers. The scale of the project is unprecedented in the history of railway construction.

"Nonsense! The estimated investment is over 300 billion yuan. Where will the country get so much money to invest in this project?" A leader slammed the table, very dissatisfied: "It was not included in the 'Sixth Five-Year Plan' a few years ago. We said to slow down the construction. Why are you planning to build it again?!"

"More than 300 billion. The rats are almost starving to death in the Ministry of Finance's warehouses. Where will so much money come from to build it?" The leader was a little angry.

The Beijing-Kowloon Railway is naturally necessary to build and is also very important.

But the problem is that the country has no money!
A penny can make a hero fall.

Now that the country is undergoing reform and opening up, money is needed in every aspect. It is too difficult to invest more than 300 billion at one time!

No matter how hard you squeeze, you can't squeeze out that much money.

Many leaders believe that it is not appropriate to launch the Beijing-Kowloon Railway project at this time.

Of course, some leaders believe that this project should be launched with gritted teeth, because the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway is now the most important trunk line from Beijing to Guangdong Province. It is now very busy during certain periods. If it continues to develop in the future, the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway will not be able to bear the responsibility of north-south transportation.

"Comrade Liu Tao, tell me what you think." The old man smoked a cigarette and did not express his opinion immediately. Instead, he looked at Liu Tao.

Liu Tao hesitated for a moment before saying, "The construction of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway is imperative. Everyone knows the current situation of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway. In three or four years at most, the Beijing-Kowloon Railway will be very crowded, affecting the north-south transportation."

"I suggest that the Beijing-Kowloon Railway be launched and the current plan for the Beijing-Kowloon Railway be adjusted. This plan is too conservative. I am afraid that it will not be long before those single-track sections will face transportation 'bottlenecks'. I suggest that the entire Beijing-Kowloon Railway be built with double tracks, and double tracks should also be built, with more double tracks reserved." Liu Tao said.

The great significance of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway is beyond doubt.

This will be a huge north-south artery.

Like this "Beijing-Kowloon Railway" plan, it is not a strict double-track standard, but a combination of double and single tracks, with land reserved for double tracks.

Liu Tao said: "The railway is designed for 160 kilometers per hour, which is too conservative. I suggest raising the standard to 250 kilometers per hour and adopting electrification."

The leader who was most opposed to Liu Tao laughed angrily when he heard what he said: "Comrade Liu Tao, according to what you said, we need to invest at least 700 billion RMB. The country can't even come up with more than 300 billion RMB now, so how can we come up with 700 billion RMB?"

"Moreover, we don't have the technology to reach a speed of 160 kilometers per hour. We have to import it from outside. We don't even know how much it will cost to import this technology." The leader said seriously.

"In terms of technology, our Panshan Group can assist. As for money, our Panshan Group will contribute 70%." Liu Tao said. In terms of technology, there is no need to worry, he can solve it.

As for investment, he can also handle it.

The current cost of building one kilometer of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway is 600 million yuan, which includes the renovation of railway stations along the line, as well as a large number of bridges and tunnels.

If it is built later, the cost per kilometer will be at least tens of millions. If it is built after the new century, the cost of the railway will soar to 100 million.

It can be said that his suggestion can save the country at least more than 4000 billion yuan in the next to years, and can also promote economic development ahead of schedule.

This large-scale project, which is related to basic people's livelihood, has enormous capacity to boost the social economy.

As for why he proposed electrification, it is because it can increase the overall transportation capacity by at least 30%.

Everyone looked at Liu Tao in shock.

Responsible for solving technical problems and also providing 70% of the funds, which is almost 70 billion yuan.

The old man said slowly: "Since Comrade Liu Tao has such great determination and courage, don't we even have the courage to take 200 billion yuan for construction?"

"The Shenyang-Haikou Expressway project is progressing smoothly under the strong push of Comrade Liu Tao. I think this project can be done. If possible, we will take a new train from Beijing to Hong Kong in 1987!" The old man spoke with a strong Sichuan accent, his voice was not loud, but firm and powerful: "I still remember going to Japan a few years ago. Their Shinkansen trains had a speed of 210 kilometers per hour, which shocked me. If our Beijing-Kowloon Railway can reach a speed of 250 kilometers per hour, it will surpass them and will be of great significance to our socialist construction."

The huge shock a few years ago still has a profound impact on us today.

You have to know that at that time, the speed of Japan's Shinkansen was 210 kilometers per hour, while our railways were still at a low level of development, with an average operating speed of only 55 kilometers per hour.

The overall level of bus equipment and manufacturing technology are far behind those of developed countries.

Liu Tao was secretly shocked. He didn't expect the old man to make this decision.

1987, less than 4 years ago!

But since this is the case, no matter how great the difficulties are, we must overcome them.

Now that it has been decided that the "Beijing-Kowloon Railway" will be built, the next step is not to discuss whether to build it or not, but how to organize the construction. This requires coordination among the provinces and cities along the line to cooperate with the project construction.

It can be said that this is a project of the century!
Steel, electromechanical, etc. all need to be matched together. Otherwise, if there is a problem in any link, the timing of the entire project will be affected and construction will not be able to start.

This reflects the advantage of the Chinese system in that it can concentrate resources to accomplish major tasks.

The whole society will function efficiently, just like a precision instrument.

Each province and city is just a part of this instrument and must obey the overall situation.

There is no room for bargaining.

(End of this chapter)