China Railway 24th Bureau Group Corp Ltd, a unit of State-owned China Railway Construction Corp, said its team in Taicang, Jiangsu province, has recently begun construction on the first three bids of a high-speed railway along the Yangtze River.

The bids involve a total investment of over 3.3 billion yuan ($460 million) and a total length of 20.47 kilometers, and have challenges including overpass building and various resettlement work.

The railway, linking Shanghai and Chengdu, Sichuan province, has 12 stations, of which nine are newly planned. "The railway will be connected to the national rail network and play a key role in linking inland regions with coastal ones, especially those along the Yangtze River," said the Party chief of the CR24 project team.