BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The first phase of the expansion project of the China-Europe freight train assembly center in Urumqi has been put into use on Monday.
The assembly center is expected to reduce the time of marshalling the trains from 24 to about 6 hours and further enhance the ability of Urumqi as an international logistics hub.
Investment in the expansion project totaled about 840 million yuan with a construction area of about 960 mu (15 mu equal one hectare), including a railway operation area, an assembly and distribution area and other functional areas.
Construction on the project started in August this year , and the rest of the project will be completed by August 2019.
The assembly center in Urumqi started operational in May 2016. Over the past two years, the center has seen departure of more than 1,770 China-Europe freight trains on 19 routes to reach 17 countries of Asia and Europe.
(Edited by Bao Nuomin,baonuomin@xinhua.org)