In 2003, in order to standardize the construction of rail transit projects, the State Council issued a document requesting that the general budgetary revenue of urban local finance for the development of subways be more than 10 billion yuan, the GDP will reach more than 100 billion yuan, and the urban population will be more than 3 million. The general budgetary revenue of the local governments that declare the construction of light rail is more than 6 billion yuan, the GDP is more than 60 billion yuan, and the urban population is over 1.5 million.

This standard has not changed for many years, and with the overall development of the Chinese economy, it has become easier to achieve this goal. The 4 trillion investment plan in 2008 further aggravated the boom in subway construction. According to a report in August 2009, Lu Kehua, director of the Urban Construction Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, revealed that the State Council has approved the construction of subways in 22 cities with a total investment of 882.03 billion yuan.

The report further cites relevant persons from the Nanchang Railway Office. "We are fortunate to have seized this historical opportunity. If there is no international financial crisis, there will be no such 'acceleration' in the approval, because the investment in the subway project can expand domestic demand."

In 2016, the State Council relaxed the requirements for the subway project. The original urban population has reached the standard of more than 3 million people, and the urban population has been reduced to more than 1.5 million. The reason is also the same. Ning Jizhen, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the National Bureau of Statistics, said, “Infrastructure investment will still play a key role in achieving the expected economic and social development goals for the whole year.”

He also said that the country's 500 billion yuan of fixed-asset budget investment has been significantly decentralized. For the implementation of major projects, as long as it can be advanced to this year, it will be advanced to this year. Therefore, there is a demanding and motivated urban rail project. It will inevitably become the focus of the next step.

In addition, with the decentralization of some project approval rights, local governments have a greater say in the construction of the subway. According to reports from China Business Network, cities such as Nantong, Tangshan, Luoyang, Yantai, Baotou and Hohhot are also actively preparing for the construction of rail transit in Shanghai.

However, over-investment that experts were worried about at the time was already apparent. In 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission's documents required that the initial load intensity of the subway should not be less than 0.7 million per kilometer per day. However, many cities are unable to meet this standard, including 14 cities including Tianjin, Shenyang, Changchun, Dalian, Suzhou, Kunming, Changsha, Ningbo, Wuxi, Qingdao, Fuzhou, Dongguan, Nanning and Hefei. The lowest load intensity in Fuzhou is only 0.09 million per km per day.

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