A HIGH-SPEED rail linking Shenzhen and Maoming in Guangdong Province had been approved by the State Council, China News Service reported yesterday.

    A section of the Guangdong Western Coastal High-speed Rail, the 371-kilometer project would be built under the Pearl River and reach Maoming via Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Yangjiang cities.

    When completed, the trip from Shenzhen to Maoming will be cut from six hours to three.

    The 45.8-billion-yuan (US$6.9 billion) project, which would link the Shenzhen-Xiamen High-speed Rail in the east and Maozhan (Maoming-Zhanjiang) rail in the west, would help form a comprehensive high-speed rail network with Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai as transport hubs.

    It is expected to facilitate exchange between western Guangdong cities and Pearl River Delta cities, and play a vital role in the economic development of Guangdong’s west.

    Work started on the Mao-ming-Zhanjiang section, 102 kilometers in total, in September 2009 and was expected to cost 4.6 billion yuan. The section will be finished next year. The target speed for the railway is 250 kilometers per hour.

    Another high-speed railway would be built between Guangzhou and Meizhou in Guangdong’s east, the Nanfang Daily reported Friday, quoting Zhu Zejun, the mayor of Meizhou.(Han Ximin)