(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-28 00:45

The company leading the construction of a Beijing-Shanghai express railway was inaugurated in Beijing on Thursday, according to the Chinese Ministry of Railways (MOR).

Known as the Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway Company Limited, it was set up in coordination with the MOR and the local governments of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai, which lie along the projected rail line.

The company was jointly set up by the China Railway Construction Investment Corporation, the investment and financing arm of the MOR for the country's key railway projects; Ping An Asset Management Co., Ltd. under the Ping An Group; the National Council for Social Security Fund, and the investment companies of the localities involved.

The Beijing-Shanghai line, a 160-billion-yuan (21 billion U.S. dollars) project, is becoming a reality after 10 years of preparation. Construction is expected to start in mid-January, with service to begin in 2013.

No official information about the new company's funding was provided by the MOR. However, media reports have said that the MOR would provide 78.9 percent of the funding, significantly higher than the 51 percent proportion initially mentioned.

The project would cut travel time between the Chinese capital and the country's leading financial hub from around 10 hours at present to about five hours.

The 1,318-kilometer high-speed railway, when completed, will be the longest high-speed rail line in the world. It is expected to carry 160 million passengers annually and double the transport capacity between the two cities.

"The project would ease the pressure on tight rail transport capacity between Beijing and Shanghai," said Lu Dongfu, the MOR Vice-Minister.