Construction on China's second passenger-only inter-city railroad will start this month.

The line will run between Lushan, a popular summer resort in Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi Province, and provincial capital Nanchang, where it will join the existing Beijing-Kowloon Railway, a north-south trunk route.

The railway is scheduled to be completed and in service in 2009.

The first passenger-only inter-city railway runs between Beijing and Tianjin and is scheduled to be completed in 2008.

The Jiujiang-Nanchang Railway will be 131.27 km long, of which 96.91 km will be new, according to the provincial development and reform commission.

It will be a double-track road capable of carrying trains traveling at up to 200 km per hour, and will cost 6 billion yuan, which will be equally shared by Jiangxi Provincial Government and the Ministry of Railways.

It will shorten the travel time from Jiujiang, on the southern side of the Yangtze River, to Nanchang from current 90 minutes to 40 minutes.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2007)