(Photo : Zhang Shuguang)

Zhang Shuguang who is considered as the pioneer of China's high-speed railway technology has been booked on bribery charges after the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court accepted a corruption case against him and now, he will face trial for allegedly receiving bribes to help business houses in getting government contracts.

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A former Deputy Chief Engineer with Chinese Railways ministry, Zhang had already been sacked from his post on February 2011 on charges of economic violations that had helped railway contractors to gain huge profits from government's funds.

Zhang had reportedly taken huge bribes that have been estimated to be around 47.6 million Yuan (7.8 million US dollars) between 2000 and 2011 and subsequently causing huge loss to government exchequer.

Due to Zhang's alleged complicity, the railways contractors supplied goods to railway ministry at exorbitant prices which include charging 1,125 Yuan for a box of sanitation paper.

As per investigation reports, Zhang was earlier probed on charges of corruption in 2001 but the investigating agency couldn't find any evidence against him in the case after which he was transferred to Shenyang in northeast China.

However in 2003, Zhang was promoted by the then Chinese Railways minister Liu Zhijun, who has been awarded a suspended death on corruption charges.

As per reports, Zhang started taking bribes for awarding contracts, way back in 2000 and he had allegedly received bribes from several companies, including the boss of Guanzhou Zhongche Railway Vehicle equipment Co. Ltd, Yang Jianyu.

Yang's company had paid these bribes to Zhang to get government contracts for supplying high-speed trains that lagged in technology, for Guanzhou-Shenzhen route. Investigating authorities pegs the bribes from Yang to the senior railway official at 10.50 Yuan till 2011 when they started probing the corruption charges.

Zhang and his wife had reportedly bought a house in California with the cash payment of 860,000 US dollars and his total assets in the banks of US and Switzerland has been estimated at whopping 2.8 billion US dollars.