Construction is to begin in the first half of this year on a new railway linking Northwest China's three provinces and regions to improve the transportation of coal, local sources report.

With a total length of 752 kilometers, the railway will start from Taiyuan City, capital of North China's Shanxi Province, pass through Shaanxi Province and end in Zhongwei City of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, both in northwest China.

"Railway is the basic means of transportation for coal from Shanxi, China's major coal production base. But current rail capabilities only meet 30 percent of the coal's transportation demands," said an official with the Development and Reform Commission of Taiyuan.

The new railway will shorten the travel distance between China's western regions and the major cities of North China by 100 km to 500 km.

It will cost 30.3 billion yuan (3.7 million U.S. dollars) and take about four and a half years to complete. It will be jointly built by the Ministry of Railways, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Ningxia.

The electrified double-track railway will allow speeds of 160 km to 200 km per hour. The cargo transportation capability is 26 million tons in the short term.

Source: Xinhua