China is planning a 740-kilometer (460-mile) railway line to better link its impoverished, but coal-rich north to more prosperous and energy-hungry provinces further south, state media said Tuesday.
The coal rail, budgeted at 23 billion yuan (2.9 billion dollars), will start at Baotou, a major city in Inner Mongolia, a region known for its vast coal resources, the Shanghai Securities News reported.
Its southern terminus will be at Tangshan harbor, around 240 kilometers (150 miles) east of Beijing, where the coal will be loaded onto ships and transported to the nation's energy-guzzling south, according to the paper.
The idea of a new coal railway to Inner Mongolia was raised in a research report jointly issued by power companies Huaneng and Datang International Power, coal producer Shenhua, and the State Development and Investment Corp.
The newspaper report did not give a timeframe for when the railway would be built.
Despite its rapidly modernizing economy, China is still heavily dependent on coal, relying on it for about two thirds of its energy consumption.
