Fixed-asset investment in the railway sector amounted to 271.4 billion yuan ($40 billion) in the first six months of 2010, an increase of 17 percent from the same period a year earlier, the newspaper reported, citing data from the Ministry of Railways.
But the investment in the first half was only 32.9 percent of the ministry's full-year target of 823.5 billion yuan, it said.
Dong Yan, a railway planning researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission, was quoted by the China Times as saying the second half would see a big rise in spending on railway projects.
To achieve that full-year goal, China may have to spend 3 billion yuan every day on railway projects in the second half, the newspaper said.
Capital spending is key to China's economic growth in the second half of the year after latest data showed that the economy slowed in the second quarter from the first quarter.
In 2009, China planned to spend 600 billion yuan on railways, but the actual investments reached 700.7 billion yuan. (Reuters)
