The Greater Bay Area (GBA) could soon be getting its first cross-sea road-rail link, after the proposed Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link project (also known as Lingydingyang Corridor) received backing from the central government.
According to Chinese media reports, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said it would incorporate a suggestion to fast-track the project when formulating its integrated transport scheme for transport and railway under the national 15th Five-Year Plan (2026 to 2030).
The recommendation was originally made by Xie Jian, a Guangdong-based National People’s Congress deputy, during the recent Two Sessions meetings among China’s national legislature and consultative committee.
Once constructed, the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link will connect Shenzhen’s Qianhai district to the east with Zhuhai’s National Hi-Tech Zone to the west, reducing the direct travel between the two areas to around 30 minutes.
The sea crossing is set to be situated between the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
Based on the current plans, the Shenzhen-Zhuhai link will consist of three parts, the first of which is an eight-lane, two-way highway. The second section is a Shenzhen-Zhuhai high-speed rail that can travel at up to 350 kilometres per hour from Shenzhen’s Xiili Station. Meanwhile, the third section is an approximately 40 kilometre long Shenzhen-Zhuhai intercity railway line that departs from Shenzhen’s Qianhai Station, running at 200 kilometres per hour.
[See more: A high-speed rail between Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Yangjiang is being planned]
In his research, Xie found that the current sea crossings along the Pearl River Delta, including the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, which opened in 2024, were already nearing full capacity.
At the same time, Xie pointed out that there were still no high-speed railway links connecting the eastern and western coast of the Pearl River Delta. Currently, bullet trains travelling between Shenzhen and Zhuhai are required to take a detour around Guangzhou to the north, with no high-speed railway line directly linking Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Macao together. As a result, there was still a clear lapse in terms of achieving the goal of “GBA on the Rail.”
Last December, Guangdong’s government listed the development of the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link project among its recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Meanwhile, authorities in Shenzhen and Zhuhai have already launched plans to connect both ends of the passage together and have reserved space in preparation for the project.
Reports note that preliminary work on the cross-sea corridor had been sped up before,
However, one of the main sticking points of the project was the failure of the high-speed rail route to meet national standards. This time around, the national authorities have said they are aiming to directly overcome this barrier.
Aside from the Shenzhen-Zhuhai Link, a number of other railway projects are also in development in the GBA. They include high-speed railways linking Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Yangjiang, as well as Guangzhou, Qingyuan and Yongzhou.
