MANILA -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is lending 300 million U.S. dollars to China to help it build a 944- kilometer railway line in its less economically developed interior regions, an ADB report said Wednesday.

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The report said the project railway is the first east-west railway connecting Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. It will run from Taiyuan in the central part of Shanxi to Zhongwei and Yinchuan in Ningxia, a relatively poor area.

It is also the shortest east-west corridor linking Beijing, Huanghua, Qingdao and other major cities and ports in the east to Yinchuan, Zhongwei, Lanzhou and Urumqi in the west on its way to Kazakhstan. As the shortest east-west corridor linking China to Europe, the project will help to promote regional cooperation.

"Providing economic railway transportation in the less- developed and poor areas will help create the conditions necessary for developing local resources. It will also create jobs and opportunities to raise living standards," said Manmohan Parkash, an ADB Senior Transport Specialist (Railways).

The project will construct 520-kilometer of double track electrified railway from Taiyuan to Dingbian, 232-kilometer of electrified single track from Dingbian to Zhongwei, and 192- kilometer of electrified single track from Dingbian to Yinchuan. It will also construct 41 new railway stations, including safety initiatives using modern technology, and provide e-governance and computerized management systems.