China's transport investment surges 17% in January-February

China invested 176.3 billion yuan (28.7 billion U.S. dollars) on construction of railways, roads and waterways in the first two months of 2015, up 16.9 percent year on year, latest data revealed.
In break-up, railways investment during the period hit 46.2 billion yuan, up 8.2 percent; roads investment stood at 116.4 billion yuan, up 15.9 percent while waterways investment reached 13 billion yuan, up 85.5 percent year on year, according to data released Friday by the Ministry of Transport.
The ministry said the sharp rise in waterway investment in the first two months was due to a low base in the same period last year.
The data also showed that the nation's railways, roads, and waterways recorded 3.67 billion passenger trips in the Jan.-Feb. period, down 2.9 percent year on year. The ministry did not specify reasons to the decline, but said road trips declined the most, dropping 3.5 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, the volume of freight transport during the period hit 5.96 billion tonnes, up 9.2 percent year on year, the data showed.