China Awards Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Rail Contracts

The Chinese Government has awarded contracts to four Chinese companies that have bid more than CNY80bn ($11.01bn) to construct the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway.

Contracts for the project were divided into six sections with China Railway Construction winning its bid for the two largest - worth CNY33.7bn - making up 40 percent of the total project.

China Railway Group also won its CNY22bn bid, Chinese news agency Xinhua announced over the weekend.

The 1,320km, high-speed link is planned to cut travel time between China's capital and its finance centre to five hours from 12, according to government.

Trains will run at speeds of up to 350km per hour (220 mph), making it the country's fastest rail line.

By staff writer