On January 26, the Yunnan Provincial Government Work Report released key tasks for railway transportation construction in 2021, with the important goal of "striving for 3 completed, 2 started, 1 accelerated" to make up for the backward infrastructure.
3 completed: Strive to complete within the year the Lijiang-Shangri-La Railway, Yuxi-Mohan Railway, and Dali-Ruili Railway (Dali-Baoshan section), achieving railway coverage in 4 cities (prefectures) including Diqing Prefecture, Pu'er City, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, and Baoshan City.
The Baoshan-Ruili section of the Dali-Ruili Railway has a bridge-tunnel ratio of 86.5%, with extremely difficult construction. Major control projects such as the Gaoligongshan Tunnel (34.5 km) and Yingpanshan Tunnel (8,352 m) are expected to be completed and opened to traffic in December 2022, when people in Dehong Prefecture can take bullet trains directly to Dali and Kunming.
2 started: Strive to start construction of the Dali-Lijiang-Panzhihua High-Speed Railway and the Mengzi-Wenshan section of the Yunnan-Guangxi Border Railway, which will realize the "high-speed rail dream" of the people of Dali and Lijiang, and the "railway dream" of the people of Wenshan City.
On February 1, China Railway Design Group brought good news: starting from December 10, 2020, preliminary survey work for the Mengzi-Wenshan Railway (hereinafter referred to as the "Mengwen Railway") has been carried out, mainly including on-site route selection, route control survey and leveling along the line, and surveying the terrain, landforms, and geology of the expected railway route to design the most suitable route for construction and traffic. In over 20 days, the plan was repeatedly surveyed and optimized, with more than 50 local comparison schemes.
The Mengwen Railway, located in Wenshan and Honghe prefectures in southeastern Yunnan, is part of the Mangshi-Fangchenggang Southwest Border Railway in the "National Medium- and Long-Term Railway Network Plan" and the eastern railway corridor of Yunnan's border areas; it is a convenient transportation channel between the urban agglomerations of central and southeastern Yunnan, and the eastern corridor for western and southwestern Yunnan; it is a key construction project in Yunnan Province's 13th Five-Year Railway Network Plan.
The project starts from Honghe Station of the Mile-Mengzi High-Speed Railway, passes through Zhichun Town in Mengzi City with Zhichun Station, goes south around the Laojunshan National Nature Reserve to Xiaojie, enters Wenshan City along the south side of the Muddi River Water Source Protection Area, sets up Wenshan Passenger Station at Qingshuitang on the west side of the city, and Wenshan South Freight Station on the north side of the Sanqi Industrial Park, then connects with the planned Wenfu and Shiwen railways. The total length is about 112 km. The design speed is 160 km/h, with reserved conditions for 200 km/h speed-up transformation. It is a double-track electrified railway with 42 new double-track tunnels, totaling 64.85 km.
After the railway is completed, the central urban area of Wenshan Prefecture will have direct railway access, leaving only Nujiang Prefecture without railway.
In addition, on June 1, 2020, Yunnan Province issued the "Yunnan Province Infrastructure 'Double Ten' Major Project Promotion Plan". The Yunnan section of the border railway has a new line length of 1,087 km, and the project is planned to be built in two phases. The Mengzi Railway is included in the first phase, striving to start construction of the Mengzi-Wenshan section in 2021. The Yunnan section of the border railway is expected to be fully connected in 2028.
Nujiang Prefecture needs to wait for the completion of the Baoshan-Lushui Railway. This railway has been included in the national "Medium- and Long-Term Railway Network Plan (2016-2030)" and the "Yunnan Province Medium- and Long-Term and 13th Five-Year Railway Network Plan" construction projects. It has a total length of 93.9 km, with 67.86 km in Baoshan City, and an estimated investment of 7.924 billion yuan. The feasibility study report of the railway project has passed review and is awaiting approval.