A major railway connecting Lanzhou City in northwestern province of Gansu with the southwestern metropolis Chongqing will start operation at the end of this year,news.cn reported.

Li Qinghui, an official with the Lanzhou Railway Bureau, told a press conference that around 47 billion yuan (7.6 billion U.S. dollars) had been invested in the construction of the Gansu section by the end of last year.

Some sections of the 1,179-kilometer railway have already opened to traffic.

The double-track electrified railway started construction in 2008. Trains are expected to run at 160 km per hour, cutting the travel time between Lanzhou and Chongqing from 20 hours to seven and a half hours.

The railway, which also runs through Shaanxi Province and Sichuan Province, will play a crucial role in improving transportation efficiency and advance the development program for western China.

China put 9,531 km of new railway lines into operation last year, beating the annual target of 8,000 km. The country will invest 800 billion yuan in railways in 2016, especially in less developed central and western regions.