The State Council ? China's cabinet ? has outlined plans to boost urban infrastructure construction through public transport construction projects. Under the plans, cities meeting certain requirements will be encouraged to roll out underground and light rail construction projects, Shanghai's First Financial Daily reports.

China will also add 1,000 km of urban rail networks throughout the country by 2015. The figures were calculated based upon data received from 36 cites whose construction projects have been approved, a source told the paper.

As of the end of June, China has put 16 new urban rail transport lines, about 2,037 km in length, into operation. This means that the country will have 3,000 km of urban rail transit lines by 2015.

Given that traffic congestion is a serious problem in many Chinese cities, subway lines are not being built to make money but to help reduce traffic and cut pollution, said Mao Baohua, a professor from the School of Transportation at Beijing Jiaotong University. Constructing underground rail lines will also leave more above-ground space for the government to build housing, he added.

Since the government introduced a policy in May last year aimed at pursuing steady economic growth, a number of urban rail transportation projects have been launched. So far, projects focusing on rail line construction and upgrades in 15 cities have been approved, and seven cities have introduced their first rail transport construction projects.

The Cabinet first began to introduce a policy to strengthen management of urban high-speed railway construction projects in 2003. Under the policy, cities with a population of more than 3 million people, fiscal revenues of more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) and a GDP of more than 100 billion yuan (US$16.3 billion) were allowed to build high speed rail lines, with projected ridership on such lines pegged at 30,000 passengers per hour.

The series of measures in support of urban rail transport development has prodded many local governments to introduce railway construction projects. Meanwhile, the State Council delegated the power of approval of such projects to local governments in May, the paper said.