A new high-speed railway will shorten the travel time from Shanghai to Nanjing to one hour from three, the Oriental Morning Post reported today after the country's top planning body approved the project.

The railway will connect eight cities in the Yangtze Delta Region.

The 39.46-billion-yuan (US$5.52 billion) railway is to be funded by the governments of both cities and the Ministry of Railways, the report said.

Planners will set up 27 stations along the 300-kilometer route to connect Shanghai, Kunshan, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Danyang, Zhenjiang and Nanjing, the report said.

The line will adopt bullet trains with a designed speed of 200 kilometers per hour that will cut travel time from three hours to one, the report said.

The line will have a minimum train interval of about three minutes and will run 24 hours, the report said.

Thirty-two kilometers of the line will be in Shanghai while 268 kilometers will run across Jiangsu Province, the report added.

The railway ministry also plans to build new rail links to connect Shanghai and Hangzhou, Changzhou and Suzhou, Suzhou and Jiaxing, as well as Hangzhou and Ningbo, the report said.

(Shanghai Daily February 21, 2008)