Nanjing-Qidong Railway (宁启铁路), also known as the Ningqi Railway, is a railway in Jiangsu Province of China between the cities of Nanjing and Nantong. Its name is derived from Ning the shorthand name for Nanjing and Qidong, a district of Nantong. It is 268.3 km in length and runs along the northern bank of the lower Yangtze River. The planned easternmost section of the railway from Nantong to Qidong has not yet been built. The single-track railway is currently undergoing double-track expansion.[1]
Planning for a railway along the north bank of the Yangtze River began as early as 1958. In 1977, the government of Jiangsu province designated the railway from Nanjing to Nantong as a project for completion within the next 10 years. Due to funding shortage and disagreement over route, the project was not built for 20 years. The project was revived in the late 1990s with the onset of construction on the Xinyi-Changxing (Xinchang) Railway, which was the first railway to be built in Jiangsu province north of the Yangtze River. In 2001, the Ministry of Railways approved plans for the Ningqi Railway, and construction was built in two phases. The Nanjing to Haian section was built from March 1, 2002 to December 2003. The Haian to Yangzhou and Nantong sections were completed by July 2005.