DARWIN, Australia — Workers on Monday began laying tracks for a railroad that will complete Australia’s long-awaited north-south rail link and provide a new trade route to Asia, a wire service.
Officials gathered in Katherine, about 150 miles southeast of the Northern Territory capital city of Darwin, for a ceremony to mark the start of work on about 880 miles of rails that will cross the desert Outback.
The $685 million line, which has been planned for a century, will link Darwin — Australia’s closest seaport to Asia — with the central city of Alice Springs, where it will connect with an existing railway to the southern coastal city of Adelaide.
Over the past 100 years, Australia’s government has planned to build the railway but could not raise enough funds. But now, state and federal governments and a consortium of private companies have come up with the cash.
“A continuous rail corridor will bring enormous trade advantages with Asia, cheaper freight options, significant job opportunities and a considerable boost to tourism and regional development,” said Federal Transport parliamentary secretary Ron Boswell.
Mechanized track layers will put down about one mile of rail a day, completing the link by early 2004.