A 302-kilometer railway line will be built in east China to provide a route for cargo transportation between northeast and east China, said an official from the railway bureau in Jinan, capital of the coastal Shandong Province.

The new railway will link Jiaozhou City in Shandong with Xinyi City in Jiangsu Province, said the official.

With a total investment of 5.1 billion yuan (US$ 614 million), the Jiaozhou-Xinyi railway will connect with a waterway in the north that links the coastal cities of Dalian and Yantai, which, in turn, is connected to the Harbin-Dalian railway in northeast China.

Meanwhile, the Jiaozhou-Xinyi railway will constitute a backbone route to link coastal cities in east China including Yantai, Weihai, Qingdao and Lianyungang.

Construction of the railway will start in October and is scheduled to be completed in three years, said sources here.

(Xinhua 09/11/2001)