President attends ceremony marking operation of new railway

Hu attends ceremony marking operation of new railway

President Hu Jintao, who was on an inspection tour in Jiangsu Province, attended a ceremony Saturday in Yangzhou to mark the operation of the Nanjing-Yangzhou section of the Nanjing-Qidong railway in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said that the Nanjing-Qidong railway will play an important role in improving the railway network in east China and promoting the development of the YangtzeRiver Delta, particularly the central and northern parts of Jiangsu.

He called on local governments to make full use of the new railway to achieve further economic and social development to benefit the people.

Hu, during his inspection of the Yangzhou Railway Station, met railway staff members and workers who were still on duty on the "International Labor Day" and learned about the construction and operation of the project.

Wang Gang, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, accompanied Hu on the inspection.

The Nanjing-Qidong Railway runs from provincial capital Nanjingto Qidong, another city in the province, via Luhe, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Hai'an and Nantong. Construction of other sections of the365-kilometer railway is going on as scheduled.