The Nanjing Metro is a rapid transit system serving the urban and suburban districts of Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu Province in the People's Republic of China. Proposals for a metro system serving Nanjing first began in 1984, with approval by the State Planning Commission granted in 1994. Construction began on the initial 16-station Line 1 in 1999, and opened in 2005. The system has 12 lines and 208 stations running on of track. It is operated and maintained by the Nanjing Metro Group Company. Future expansion plans include 30 lines set to open within the next few years, with several more awaiting approval to begin construction. History Early proposals In 1984 the first serious proposal for construction of a subway appeared in the Municipal People's Congress. In April 1986, the Nanjing Integrated Transport Planning group was established to research on how to implement a subway system in Nanjing. In December 1986 the team published the "Nanjing Metro Initial Phase". The phase consists of a north–south line, east–west line and a diagonal Northwest to Southeast line. The three lines meet in the city center forming a triangle. A revision of the "Nanjing City Master Plan" in 1993 added another line through the urban core, and three light metro lines connecting Nanjing's suburbs in Pukou and the at time proposed new airport. In addition a suburban railway to Longtan was proposed. A 1999 report on "Nanjing city rapid rail transit network planning" further proposed six subway lines, two subway extensions and three light metro lines. In 1994, the State Planning Commission approved the preparatory work for the subway only to have the entire metro project postponed in 1995 amid a national freeze on new metro projects. Major changes were made to "Nanjing Urban Rail Transit Network Planning" in 2003. The new master plan consisted of 13 lines, of which nine are subway lines and four are light metro lines. The new Line 6 will be a loop line connecting all the urban radial lines. The plan retained the original lines 1, 2 and 3 from the previous plan. According to the new plan, the initial phase would consist of the completion of Metro Line 1 and 2 by 2010. Together the two lines will form a basic "cross" network. By 2020 the completion of Lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 was to form a more robust "pound" shaped (#) network.