(Yicai) Feb. 8 -- Construction work is set to start this year on the final section of the 2,100-kilometer high-speed railroad that will connect the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Chongqing, and Chengdu, with trains slated to begin running on the line by 2030.

Plans for the Chongqing-Yichang section, the last link in the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu High-Speed Railway, have been drafted ahead of schedule, according to a recently published document. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s state planner, approved the feasibility study last month.

The CNY550 billion (USD76.4 billion) signature infrastructure project along the Yangtze River was first proposed in 2014. Trains will run at an average 350 km per hour on the line, which will also pass through other cities such as Nanjing, Hefei, and Wuhan.

The project kicked off in December 2020 when the Yangtze River Coast Railway Group was set up in Wuhan. Work on the Wuhan-Yichang leg began in 2021, followed by the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei and Chongqing-Chengdu sections the year after, and finally last month, the Hefei-Wuhan section broke ground. 

The Chongqing-Yichang section is about 490 km in length and will cost CNY128.8 billion (USD17.9 billion). Hubei province has 329 km of the track, corresponding to an investment of CNY88.2 billion (USD12.3 billion), and the section has been given local authority approval.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine