Harbin, Aug, 9.
The first lap of the new Hu-Hei fay, which will eventually link bin with Sahalian (Hei-to) on Amur has already been completed, ud construction work pushed forward, for, by the firs, of next year, according to contract, 94 versts of the new railway must be completed. The terminus of this. Me is at Sung-Pei, an entirely new town which will before long' rival Fachiatien lying on the north bank of the Sungari and opposite to Harbin, Hulancheng is 21 kilometres distant from Sung-Pei and is important town boasting of some 100,000 inhabitants, in the centre fof a rich grain district. 'The steel bridge across the Hulan River is 418 metres in length and was formally opened by the managing-director of the railway company fast month. The rails, ties ete, for this sector have been' supplied by. the S. BIN R, at a cost of $500,000 whilst' the total cost of building 21 kilometre fine is just over $1,000,000 which works ut at about $50- '000 a verst or a little less than half what it cost to build the -C. E.R. The second sector accord: ing to the estimate will only cost. $35,000 a verst, thanks to the flatness of the country and there being bu little bridgework necessary. The rails in this instance have tron bought in the U. 8. A, from the United Steel Products Ca. The total cost of this 94 kilometres will be just over $4,000,000 whilst it is timated the whole Railway will cust about $30,000,000 and samleted Ik foot faure, Aa tthares some 20 million ponds of Manchurian reduce isvearly brought into Har by native cart from the Hulan district the new Relay i Uksly te make good returns as soon as reins run between Sung-Pei and Hulan for arrangements have alidy been made with the C. for the transferrit the latter oilway. Thus Hu-Hei line i become an important feeder to the C.
Mr. Ostrommoff, formerly general-manager of the ©. E.R. is in charge of the building of this new 1 and has under him many former engineers and technical men of the C.E. R. so that though the line is being built. entirely with "Chinese money, it is actually being -built by Russians. This accounts for the rapid manner in which it Is being constructed. For the Bulan bridge on} to complete whilst the No rear Tsitsiha on the Toanam-Ts har Railway took nearly two years.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.