China on Monday outlined plans to boost infrastructure construction by 2015 through transport and energy projects, as part of efforts to speed up urbanization and support economic growth.

The projects would contribute to stable economic growth and help push ahead with urbanization, the State Council, the country's cabinet, said in a statement on the main government website.

China will add 50% or 1,000 kilometers of urban rail networks by 2015, the statement said. The country currently has a total of 2,100 km of rail transit in 18 cities, the government previously said.

Authorities will also expand and upgrade an 80,000-km natural gas pipeline and finish construction of 73,000 km of new sewage lines over the same period, the statement said. It didn't specify how much authorities planned to spend or name the cities that would be affected.

Infrastructure spending has been a cornerstone of Chinese policy to ensure that employment remains strong and the economy reaches the government growth target of 7.5% this year. Beijing has also loosened curbs on rural-urban migration in order to spur domestic consumption, speed up the country's urbanization and ultimately boost economic growth. However, rapid migration has put strains on infrastructure in cities.

"Strengthening urban infrastructure can help boost economic restructuring and change the economic growth mode, contributing to investment and consumption while expanding employment," the statement said.

Premier Li Keqiang, a big supporter of faster urbanization, has said that the process could produce substantial social and financial dividends and become a development driver for the world's second-largest economy.

Analysts, however, weren't enthused by the plans.

"Infrastructure investment will likely remain a main policy tool for Beijing to stabilize growth when other sectors such as manufacturing and property are losing momentum," said Wendy Chen, a Nomura China economist. "But since the government had already invested so much in infrastructure, it's unclear how big of a boost the new policies will give," she said.

In April, the economic planning agency approved a 63 billion yuan ($10.3 billion) project to build 14 subway lines in the city of Kunming , southern Yunnan province, between 2013 and 2019.
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