A new high-speed railway will whiz passengers between downtown Shanghai and suburban Jinshan District in just 30 minutes, city planners revealed yesterday.

The railway, based on an existing line, will connect the district with Shanghai South Railway Station.

Construction is expected to begin as early as July.

"It will make it much easier for downtown people to work or live in the district," Chen Youhua, a senior engineer with the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau, said yesterday.

The railway will also make it practical for city residents to visit the beach at Jinshan, he said. It currently takes more than two hours to travel from downtown Shanghai to Jinshan.

The old railway was built in the 1970s, and it was mainly used to transport chemical products during the 1980s and 1990s. It was abandoned in 2002 because of the rapid development of road transport.

With a total investment of 2.6 billion yuan (US$356 million), the new high-speed railway will have a total length of 58 kilometers, including 23.4 kilometers within Jinshan District, officials said yesterday.

The project planners said trains traveling on the new line will run at 140-160 kilometers per hour.

A huge transport hub with a ground area of 12.5 hectares will be built at the terminus in Jinshan.

The completion date of the rail project and ticket prices are not yet known.

(Source: www.shanghai.gov.cn )