Investment in China’s railway infrastructure construction is expected to exceed 300 billion yuan in the second half of 2009, the 21st Century Business Herald cited an insider from the Ministry of Railways as saying.

The insider told the paper that as much as 600 billion yuan will be invested in the railways sector this year to support the large amount of new projects.

Investment in railway infrastructure construction rose to 245.73 billion yuan in the first seven months, up 136.9 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Railways said yesterday.

More than 3,130 km of rails were built for new lines in the first seven months, and mileage of multi-track rails increased to 2,873 km, said Wang Yongping, spokesman for the Ministry.

The volume of passengers travelling by train totaled 896.45 million, up 4.8 percent or 41.14 million from the same period last year. During the same period, passenger miles increased 0.2 percent year-on-year to 467.96 billion person miles.

Passenger volume reached 141.88 million person-trips, 3.94 million more than that of the same period last year, and 26.69 million more than that of June, said Wang.