Lawmakers issue bond to finance third airport in Beijing

BEIJING: Chinese capital Beijing will have a third airport and lawmakers have approved a plan to issue additional bonds of about USD 1 billion to finance it.

"Around 4 billion yuan of the bonds will be used to support land expropriation and housing demolition in the project," Li Yingjin, head of the municipal finance bureau, said in a report to the Municipal People's Congress on adjustment to the 2015 budget.

Lawmakers yesterday approved government plan to issue additional bonds about worth 6.7 billion yuan to finance the building of the new airport.

Li attributed the increased funding to reasons like larger demolition areas, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

According to an early report, 23.8 billion yuan will cover land compensation fees for the new airport.

The construction of the new airport in southern Beijing's Daxing district started in December 2014 and will take about five years to complete.

The airport, which is designed to handle 72 million passengers, 2 million tonnes of cargo and mail, and 6,20,000 flights by 2025, will meet Beijing's rising demand for air transportation and help achieve balanced development in the capital's southern and northern areas.

A 66-km rapid transit line will be built to link the city's northern areas to the new airport. Passengers will spend less than 30 minutes getting to the city centre from the airport.

Currently, Beijing has two airports that serve civil aviation flights - Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Nanyuan Airport.

Beijing Capital International Airport, located in northeastern Beijing, served 83.7 million passengers in 2013 and was listed as the second-busiest airport in the world last year by passengers, behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States, according to Airports Council International.