(Yicai) Nov. 30 -- China plans to put seven new railway lines into operation next month, according to state-owned railroad constructor China State Railway Group.

The railways that will be put into operation in December are located in China’s northern, southwestern, southeastern, and southern regions, China Railway said.

China’s fixed asset investment in railways rose 7.2 percent to CNY572.6 billion (USD80.3 billion) in the first 10 months of the year from a year earlier, reversing the downward trend in recent years, according to data released by China Railway on Nov. 25.

This year, China will likely add 3,000 kilometers of railway lines, including 2,500 km of high-speed ones, with the annual railway investment exceeding CNY760 billion, China Railway said in July. The railway investment in the less developed western regions continued to grow to CNY109.4 billion in the first seven months of the year, accounting for nearly 45 percent of the total.

The Sichuan-Qinghai Railway connecting southwestern Sichuan province and western Qinghai province and the Lijiang-Shangrila Railway connecting touristic cities Lijiang and Shangrila in southwestern Yunnan province came on stream this week.

The Sichuan-Qinghai Railway, which connects northwestern and southwestern China, is important to further promote the development of the western regions, Peng Qiyuan, a professor at Southwest Jiaotong University, told Yicai. There are many high-quality tourism resources along the railway line, which also have high economic value, Peng added.

The railway network in eastern and central China is already high-density, so the focus of future railway construction lies in the western regions, Peng said.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione