China, whose heavy coal demand has caused transport bottlenecks at home and price rises globally, has unveiled plans to build more railways to help alleviate supply shortages, state media said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Railways and Shanxi province, China's major coal production center, have agreed on three feeder lines in the northern, central and southern parts of the province to be completed by 2008.
About half of Shanxi's land area is rich in coal and estimated coal reserves in the province are 641.3 billion tons, supplying power stations across the country, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Rail is the principal method of coal transportation in the province but it can only currently accomodate 30 percent of demand.
Energy shortfalls have reached crisis levels this year, with a 30,000-megawatt shortage this summer, the worst since the 1980s.
Many major power plants have run low on coal supplies due to the transport bottlenecks and surging demand stemming from the country's rapid economic growth.