The FINANCIAL — The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved two loans totaling $350 million to the People’s Republic of China to support urban rail development in Henan’s provincial capital Zhengzhou, and to enhance flood protection and wastewater services in Chongqing Municipality, according to the World Bank Group.
The Zhengzhou Urban Rail Project, financed with an IBRD loan of US$250 million, will support construction of the Urban Rail Line 3 that will connect the city center of Zhengzhou with its northwest and southeast development areas. It will directly benefit over 900,000 people who live or work in the areas along the rail line by providing a faster, safer, more reliable, more affordable transit option with lower impact on the environment. This is the third urban rail project that the World Bank has supported in China, after the Kunming Urban Rail Project and Nanchang Urban Rail Project.
“The project will ensure good accessibility to rail stations by public transit, biking and walking. It will also emphasize better integration of land use planning and urban transport,” said Gerald Ollivier, Senior Transport Specialist at the World Bank. “Knowledge gained in this project will also contribute to solutions in other cities in China, through TransFORM, a collaborative transformation and innovation platform between China’s Ministry of Transport and the World Bank, to make transport safer, cleaner and more affordable in China,” he added.
The Chongqing Small Towns Water Environment Project, financed with an IBRD loan of US$100 million, will address flood risks and water pollution in four counties (Tongnan, Rongchang, Shizhu and Pengshui). This project, which is expected to benefit about 500,000 people, is part of the municipality’s urban-rural integration investments, according to the World Bank Group.
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