On November 24, 2025, there was significant good news in the field of railway infrastructure construction in the Yangtze River Delta region. The bidding work for the third and fourth lines of the Jinhua Yiwu railway and supporting projects, with a total investment of 24.579 billion yuan, was successfully completed. The official confirmation of the winning bid marks that this key project, which is related to improving the railway transportation capacity in central Zhejiang and promoting the integrated development of transportation in the Yangtze River Delta, has officially entered the substantive promotion stage, injecting strong transportation momentum into the high-quality development of the regional economy and society.

As a key expansion project of the Shanghai Kunming railway corridor, the third and fourth lines of the Jinyi Railway and supporting projects have a superior geographical location, connecting the two core cities of Jinhua and Yiwu in central Zhejiang, and passing through multiple economically active towns and villages. The total length of the main line of the project is about 45 kilometers, with a designed speed of 200 kilometers per hour. The main construction content includes the construction of a new double track railway, the renovation of existing stations and yards, the addition of supporting communication signal systems and power facilities, and the simultaneous promotion of ancillary projects such as greening and environmental protection along the line. After the completion of the project, it will completely break the bottleneck constraints of the current railway transportation from Jinhua to Yiwu. The freight capacity of the Zhejiang section of the Shanghai Kunming Railway is expected to increase by 60%, and the efficiency of passenger trains will be significantly improved, which can effectively alleviate the pressure of regional railway passenger and freight transportation.

From the perspective of regional development strategy, this project is an important node project in the integrated transportation network of the Yangtze River Delta. Jinhua and Yiwu, as the core hubs of the Zhejiang Central Urban Agglomeration, are important channels connecting the Yangtze River Delta with the Haixi Economic Zone and the Pearl River Delta. After the completion of the project, it will further strengthen the interconnection between the central Zhejiang region and the core cities of the Yangtze River Delta, shorten the time and space distance between central cities such as Hangzhou and Shanghai and the central Zhejiang region, and promote regional industrial synergy, resource sharing, and talent flow. At the same time, the project will also connect with Yiwu International Land Port, assisting in the efficient distribution of China Europe freight trains and enhancing the channel level of the Yangtze River Delta region's opening up to the outside world.

This bidding process strictly follows the principles of openness, fairness, and impartiality, attracting many top domestic railway construction enterprises to participate in the bidding. The winning bidder stated that they will establish a professional project management team, use advanced construction technology and intelligent management methods, strictly control the quality, safety, and progress of the project, and ensure that the project is completed and opened to traffic as soon as possible. The relevant departments of the local government have also established a special working group to provide full process services such as land security and procedure handling for the project, and make every effort to promote the smooth progress of the project.

Industry insiders point out that the construction of the third and fourth lines of the Jinyi Railway and supporting projects is not only an important upgrade of the railway network in central Zhejiang, but also a concrete implementation of the integrated development strategy of the Yangtze River Delta in the transportation field. After the project is put into operation, it will have multiple effects in optimizing the regional transportation structure, driving industrial upgrading along the route, and promoting urban-rural integration development, providing solid transportation support for the Yangtze River Delta to build a more competitive world-class urban agglomeration.Editor/Bian Wenjun