BEIJING -- The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway with a designed speed of 350 kilometers per hour started construction on Friday.

The 1,318-km line, upon its completion in five years, would reduce the trip between the two metropolitans to five hours and lift the one-way transport capacity to 80 million passengers and more than 100 million tons of cargo annually, said the Ministry of Railway.Attending a ceremony here, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced the formal start of the construction.

With an investment of 220.9 billion yuan (US$31.6 billion), the railway was the most expensive construction project China had started since 1949.

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Posted by boyang at April 18, 2008 12:14 PM