China will build a railway linking two important special economic zones next year, sources with China International Engineering Consulting Corporation said.
The project, which just won approval from the expert panel of the CIECC, will stretch along China's southeast coast and connect Xiamen, Fujian Province, to Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
It will be launched next year after receiving official authorization from the National Development and Reform Commission.
The coastal railway, with an expected investment of 28 billion yuan (US$3.45 billion), will be 495 kilometers long. It will include 124 km of track over bridges and 139 km through tunnels, the sources said.
The project is expected to be completed in 2009. Xiamen will become a railway hub on the east coast, linking the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas, China's two biggest manufacturing regions. Another important railway - linking Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, to Fuzhou, capital of Fujian - is under construction.
Xiamen and Shenzhen were among the first four special economic zones designated by the state council in 1980.