A new high-speed railway will cut the travel time between Shanghai and Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, from three hours to 90 minutes, a local newspaper reported today.

Construction of the 156-kilometer long Hangzhou-Ningbo railway is due to start this year, Shanghai Morning Post said.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top planning body, approved the project.

The new line will use bullet trains at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, cutting travel time between Hangzhou and Ningbo from more than 100 minutes to 36 minutes.

The new line will connect with the Shanghai-Hangzhou railway.

It will cooperate with railways in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces to constitute a cargo transport express route between the Yangtze Rive Delta and the Pearl River Delta, the report added.

The Zhejiang Province's railway department also plans to build a new rail link this year to connect Hangzhou and Nanjing. It will shorten the travel time from Hangzhou to Nanjing from three hours to one hour.

The two rail lines will cost a total of 40 billion yuan (US$5.63 billion), the report added.

Planners hope to complete a rail network in the Yangtze Delta region by 2020 to make trips between any two cities or towns no more than two hours.

(Shanghai Daily February 26, 2008)