Work on Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed rail to begin

Work on a high-speed railway between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, is set to begin in late March, state media reported. The exact starting date for construction work will not be known until the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s chief planning agency, approves a report on the project, according to Yu Jian’er, chairman of the board and general manager of Zhejiang Provincial Railway Investment Group Co. Ltd. Approval is expected in mid-February and construction will take approximately two years. The railway will be 159km long and reduce the travel time to 38 minutes from its current time of more than one hour. Baosteel Group, the Ministry of Railways, and the governments of Shanghai and Zhejiang province have invested about US$4.37 billion in the project.