China's Ministry of Railways is inviting foreign companies to be consultants and supervisors for the contruction of high speed railways that will begin in 2005.

    Altogether 16 foreign consultant companies have been invited by the Ministry of Railways to make bids for the service. They include four from each Britain and Germany, two from the United States and one from each Finland, France, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Netherlands.

    The Chinese government has approved the building of 3,000 km of high speed railways, said Chinese Vice Minister of Railways Lu Dongfu.

    The 3,000 km of tracks include railroads from Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, to Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province; Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, to Xi'an, capital of northwest Shaanxi Province; Beijing to Tianjin Municipality; Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, to Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

    All the railways are for trains that run above 200 km per hour,but the track from Wuhan to Guangzhou and Zhengzhou to Xi'an will be for trains traveling at 300 km per hour.

    Tracks from Wuhan to Guangzhou, Zhengzhou to Xi'an, and Beijing to Tianjin need foreign engineering consultant service. The track from Nanjing to Hefei needs foreign supervisor. The bidding will close at the end of January 2005.