Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 26, 2003
Cargo Transport of Xinjiang's Largest Railway Port Up
The Alataw Pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had handled 3.16 million tons of cargo by June 23 this year, 30 percent more than the same period last year.
The Alataw Pass in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had handled 3.16 million tons of cargo by June 23 this year, 30 percent more than the same period last year.
Over 70 percent of the imports from the pass were crude oil, steel and ore, while the imports were coke and oil coke.
The Alataw Pass, on the China-Kazakhstan border, is the westernmost point of the Eurasia Continental Railway Bridge in China. The railway station, the largest railway port in western China, had handled 28.7 million tons of cargo from 1991 to 2002, accounting for 90 percent of the cargo handled by 16 border ports in Xinjiang. The volume of cargo transport at Alataw rose to 5.8 million tons last year.
The Ministry of Railways has earmarked 370 million yuan to expand the railway station. The project covers construction of a customs inspection building and new railway tracks, which will be completed by the end of this year.
Upon completion, the annual transport capacity of the Alataw Pass is expected to climb from 4.5 million tons to 10 million tons.The pass would become the leading international cargo distributioncenter in western China, said Yang Zhiguo, director of the Urumqi Railway Bureau.