China's total mileage of railways open to traffic will increase to 120,000 kilometers by the end of 2015, including 50,000 kilometers of railways in the western regions, an official said Tuesday.

China currently has 91,000 kilometers of railways, said Sheng Guangzu, railway minister, at a meeting celebrating the 150th anniversary of Zhan Tianyou's birth.

Born in 1861, Zhan was a distinguished Chinese railroad engineer, nicknamed the "Father of China's railroad". He was the chief engineer responsible for construction of the Imperial Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, the first railway built in China without foreign assistance.

Sheng said all railway engineers and workers should use Zhan as their model to achieve the goal of modernizing the nation's railways as soon as possible.