China Railway 24th Bureau Group Corp Ltd (CR24), a unit of the centrally administered State-owned enterprise China Railway Construction Corp, saw further efforts in infrastructure bear fruit, with the SOE's major metro project in Nantong, Jiangsu province, reportedly nearing completion, which will push ahead the official operation date of the line and facilitate urban trips for more residents.

Answering the call to upgrade infrastructure by the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), CR24 said on Saturday it has finished the capping work for the largest metro station－Xianfengzhen Station－along the Nantong Rail Transit Line 2 in the coastal city.

With an investment of 534 million yuan ($79 million), the station is also the toughest project amid the construction of a total of 17 stations along the line, CR24 said.

"The project is located near the main road in the urban area, with a complex pipeline and tube networks buried underneath, including those for rainwater, sewage, water supply, gas, electricity, communications, streetlights … And we had to cooperate with the respective departments to work on the relocation until we managed to 'clean up' a place for the station," said Zhang Fengkai, Party chief of the project with CR24.

In addition, after the relocation work－thanks to the combined efforts of the SOE and seven municipal departments－the project team faced tunneling work following an underground path passing over the Nanjing-Qidong Railway, another hard nut to crack for the team.

"The underground overpass section has a length of merely 77 meters but saw additional participation of five technical institutes from Shanghai and construction simulation countless times due to complicated geological conditions, especially the silt-sand mix stratum, which was quite a headache to address.

"But we dared to take each of our steps with confidence built up by simulation results and various safeguarding equipment and emergency supplies at every construction site," Zhang said, adding that starting from October 2018, the construction work of the two-story station and a section of the metro rail linking the station is reaching completion. What remains is only the finishing work.

The metro line also marks the latest infrastructure upgrade in Nantong, which is part of the Yangtze River Delta region city cluster. Starting north from Xingfu Station in Chongchuan district and ending east at Xianfeng Station in Tongzhou district, the second metro line in Nantong has a total length of 20.85 kilometers and a designed speed of 80 kilometers per hour.

The metro line under construction, together with Line 1 which has just been put into operation, will play a bigger role in the city's urbanization and facilitate urban trips for residents, said Nantong Rail Transit Co Ltd, the city's metro operator.

SOEs' increasing efforts in the infrastructure nationwide, as is said by Guo Lei, chief economist at GF Securities, are in line with the nation's move this year, which is not only contributing to the nation's economic momentum but also bringing many long-term benefits.

"Infrastructure construction will remain a policy focus in the second half, and new loans from policy banks as well as their funding for infrastructure projects will provide support for infrastructure construction," Guo said.