China plans to build world’s longest underwater tunnel

BEIJING, Feb 14 (AFP) :  China plans to build the world's longest underwater tunnel, an expert involved in the project told AFP today, a $36 billion shortcut between two northern port cities in an earthquake-prone region.
The scheme will see cars loaded onto railway carriages before travelling at 220 kilometres per hour (136 miles per hour) along the 123-kilometre tunnel connecting Dalian in Liaoning province and Yantai in Shandong province.
"The underwater tunnel is expected to be completed within the period of the 13th five-year plan (2016 to 2020)," said Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
"The cost will be around 220 billion yuan and it will be the world's longest underwater tunnel," added Wang, who has worked on the plan since 2012.