UCD’s First Subway Line Featured by“Investment, Construction and Operation” Goes into Operation

On the morning of September 23, the opening ceremony for the initial operation of the second phase of Kunming Metro Line 4 and Line 6 was held in the Central Hall of Kunming Rail Transit Network. Cheng Lianyuan, member of the Standing Committee of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Kunming Municipal Party Committee, attended the ceremony and announced the opening of the project. Deputy Secretary of the Kunming Municipal Party Committee and Mayor Wang Xiliang presided over the ceremony. Leaders of Kunming Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government Rama Xinggao, Xiong Ruili and Guo Xilin attended the ceremony. The main responsible comrades of various districts and related units in Kunming, Chen Daihua, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Urban Construction Group, Wang Hanjun, General Manager of Design Development Group, Liu Li, Chief Economist, and Xia Xiujiang, Assistant Manager, participated in the event and the investigation.

Kunming Metro Line 4 starts in the northwest of the main urban area and ends in Chenggong New Town, passing through 6 administrative districts, with a total length of 43.422 kilometers and a total of 29 stations. It is currently Kunming’s longest operating mileage with the maximum number of transfer lines. The "m"-shaped rail transit network was established in Kunming. As an important industrial auxiliary line of Kunming, the opening of Kunming Metro Line 4 will enhance the interaction and connectivity of various regions in Kunming, promote the flow of people, capital, and information, and inject strong impetus into urban development. The scheduled opening of the project not only gave a satisfactory answer to more than 6 million Chuncheng residents, but also presented a gift to the 71st anniversary of the founding of New China.

At the same time, the official opening of the project also started a new era for UCD to enter the field of subway operations. As the first batch of PPP projects in Kunming and the second batch of PPP demonstration projects by the Ministry of Finance, Kunming Metro Line 4 is UCD’s first subway project for “investment, construction, and operation”. UCD is responsible for system equipment construction, project operation and maintenance and management, with the project investment being about 6.3 billion Yuan and the operation period being 30 years.

A subway created by a new model. The project adopts the "A+B" dual PPP model. UCD, as a social capital party, leads the implementation of projects with full elements, full cycles, and multiple sectors, maximizing the company's industrial advantages in design, investment, construction, operation, cultural and creative industries, and providing the government with a full range of services. Since the implementation of the project, the government and enterprise have given full play to their respective advantages and cooperated for a win-win situation to jointly create interconnection routes for the citizens of Kunming, which has become a new model of rail transit projects under the PPP model.

A subway that breaks through the traditional operation model. As the promoter and leader of the technological development in the field of urban rail transit in China, UCD always takes the promotion of industry development as its own responsibility. UCD has pushed forward a new concept of independent operation on Line 4, and quickly cultivated a total of more than 2,000 operating personnel of its own within two years, forging a large-scale, young and professional operation contingent. At the same time, UCD has independently carried out comprehensive joint debugging and provided operation services independently, realizing a new model of completely independent operation in a real sense.

A high-tech smart subway. The "Golden Dragon Cloud System" adopted for the first time in China and with international advanced level was successfully implemented on Line 4. The system solves the problems of discrete construction of traditional rail transit weak current systems, complicated interfaces, and high operation and maintenance costs. It has significant advantages in green energy saving, downsizing and increasing efficiency, and smart operation and maintenance, demonstrating UCD's innovation and technological strength in the field of the rail transit industry . At present, Line 4 has obtained 38 software copyrights, declared 17 invention patents, and has held a dominant position and participated in the preparation of a number of standards.

A subway with cultural connotations. UCD formed a cultural and creative team, invested funds to build Kunming's unique public cultural IP-K4CATS Wamao family, and realized the large-scale application of the first public cultural IP in the domestic subway; created the first digital art cultural wall in the subway scene in China, formed a "3-minute museum" community, thus realizing the integration and connection of culture and new media art, and creating the most beautiful "underground scenery" in Kunming.

Chen Daihua, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Urban Construction Group, has attached great importance to the preparatory work for the opening of Kunming Metro Line 4, and incessantly communicated with relevant persons in charge of urban construction design on board the plane to Kunming to confirm relevant preparations. After getting off the plane, Chen Daihua was driven to the Kunming Rail Transit Line 4 project site, inspected Juhua Station, North Railway Station and Dayangtian Depot on the spot, visited the Depot Dispatching Command Center and the parking garage, in relation to the problems to be handled for the construction and operation of the project. 

At the seminar on the preparatory work for the operation of Kunming Metro Line 4 organized on the afternoon of September 21, Chen Daihua listened carefully to the project department’s report on the line’s operation management, organizational model, operational organization structure and staffing, and operational talents. Chen Daihua expressed his sincere gratitude and sincere congratulations to all cadres and employees of the Kunming Metro Line 4 project for their contributions and achievements. He said that the opening and operation of Kunming Metro Line 4 not only realized the self-breakthrough of urban construction design and even the urban construction group itself, but also achieved innovative breakthroughs in the entire rail transit industry. The Kunming Metro Line 4 project fully embodies design leadership, innovation leadership, wisdom leadership and green leadership. For more than 4 years, the urban construction design and project team has overcome difficulties and improved efficiently through the method of "design leading + integration of investment, construction and operation", and realized the opening and operation on schedule, and truly realized the whole process of project implementation and whole process management. It has become a vivid portrayal of the implementation of the green development concept and the promotion of high-quality development of the industry by virtue of the scientific and technological innovation ability of UCD’s personnel and the responsibility and wisdom of the project team.

With regard to the work to be conducted in the next step, Chen Daihua pointed out that the operation team must remain humble and cautious, be good at learning, and continuously improve its own operational capabilities and service levels; and that the team must strictly control security, not only to avoid its own security loopholes, but also to minimize its exposure to external uncertainties, as well as prevention and emergency response capabilities. He added that not only should the talent training model be innovated for the project but also the talent transmission channels be opened up to provide more talents for the layout of large industries and the cultivation of new industries.

Chen Daihua stressed that the scheduled opening of Kunming Metro Line 4 is an important measure for the Urban Construction Group to create demand with supply. Through the promotion of major project construction, more than 2,000 jobs have been created for the local area with a view to fueling the local economic development and making contribution to the realization of such work and tasks as “Six Stabilities” and “Six Guarantees”. Getting involved in the new industrial field of subway operation will also produce a major impact on further innovating in management concepts, management systems, and management mechanisms, opening up the internal industrial chain inside UCD, and building a modern urban service chain. In the future, he hoped that UCD will further manifest its responsibility and performance in the process of building itself into an internationally leading integrated service provider for urban construction, and play a greater role in helping the Urban Construction Group's high-quality development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.