Railroad workers have started erecting steel racks and laying electric cables on the Harbin-Dalian Railway, the first electric railway in northeast China.

The line links the Heilongjiang provincial capital of Harbin and Dalian, a coastal city in Liaoning Province. It runs more than 900 kilometers and links 25 major cities in three provinces in northeast China.

The railway line is expected to cost 10 billion yuan and will open to traffic in August 2001. Trains travelling on the line will run at up to 140 kilometers an hour.