It has been a long time a’coming but it looks as though the Beijing-Shanghai express railway will happen although not in the immediate future. Bids have been invited for the project, which is to begin construction in January.

The Beijing Shanghai Express Railway Company has just invited global firms and organizations to compete for the project consulting work.

Which does not give anyone very much time to get a proposal together if work is starting in January.

Two other contracts, for civil construction and engineering supervision work, are limited to domestic institutions and companies.

The bidder for the global contract could also be a joint venture of one foreign consulting institution and two local ones, with the Chinese side as lead bidder.

Bidding closes on December 17 which is less than a week from now. At a guess the decision has already been made or there will have to be an extension on the deadline.

Construction is projected to take five years. The RMB160 billion yuan (US$21 billion) project seriously looks like becoming a reality.

The Beijing Times, citing sources familiar with the situation, said the Ministry of Railways would provide 78.9% of funding, significantly more than the 51% proportion mentioned in earlier reports. The remainder of the funding would come from local governments and companies.

The project will provide five-hour express services between the two cities. The 1,318-kilometer high-speed railway, when completed, will be the longest high-speed rail line in the world carrying 160 million passengers annually.