The Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed railway, which will cut travel time to 75 minutes, is set to open in July, Wenhui Daily reported today.

Currently it takes at least 120 minutes to travel from Shanghai to Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, by train.

The train will reach speed of over 300 kilometers per hour.

Construction started in July last year on the 300km rail line, which will cost 39.46 billion yuan(US$5.77 billion).

A 251km rail link between Nangjing and Hangzhou is also under construction at a cost of 31.3 billion yuan. The trip from Hangzhou to Nanjing will take 50 minutes . It now takes up to eight hours as passengers have to go by Shanghai.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway, which is expected to be completed before the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, will cut the journey to 38 minutes from the current more than an hour.

(Shanghai Daily August 11, 2009)