High speed rail [File photo/VCG] 

Construction started recently on a high speed railway to connect Ningbo and Zhoushan, two neighboring cities of Zhejiang province, local media reported.

The Ningbo-Zhoushan railway, spanning 77 kilometers, will end the days when Zhoushan had no rails, and shorten the time to travel between the two cities to only half an hour upon entering operation. 

Trains from Zhoushan to Hangzhou, capital of the province, will also be launched, shortening the time to travel between the two cities to around 75 minutes.

The railway has been equated to the recently-completed Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in the grandness and complexity of the project.

The section from Beilun district in Ningbo to Jintang Island in Zhoushan is designed to be a 16.2km subsea tunnel, which will be the nation's first, and the world's longest subsea high speed rail tunnel. The to-be-built 1,488-meter-long Xihoumen Super-Large Bridge will also be the world's longest railway-highway combined bridge.

The design sketch of the to-be-built Xihoumen Super-Large Bridge [Photo/WeChat account: CRCC_CN] 

The rail will focus mainly on tourist passenger transport, with also some inter-city passenger transport, and the train speed is set to be 250km/h. 

It is expected to significantly contribute to the role of Zhoushan and Ningbo in the ongoing construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. 

In addition, it is also an important part of the project of Zhejiang to connect Yiwu, Ningbo and Zhoushan through multimodal transportation, which integrates river, sea, rail, highway and air transport.