OREANDA-NEWS. Two railways designed to facilitate transportation between the northern part of Anhui province and the outside world are nearing completion, according to the Shanghai Railway Bureau on Thursday.

The rail line linking Fuyang in North Anhui with Lu'an, a prefecture-level city in the west of the province which borders the provincial capital Hefei to the east and the province of Henan to the west, is slated to be completed in late August, the regional railway regulator said.

The 166-kilometer route will allow trains to run at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour. An estimated 4.3 billion yuan (USD 693 million) will be spent on it, which will share the burden to the busy Beijing - Kowloon railway and help handle the North Anhui region's coal shipments upon completion, the bureau said.

The other railway, projected to cost 4.9 billion yuan, will connect Suzhou in the northernmost of Anhui with Huai'an of Jiangsu province, with a length of 210 kilometers. It is built largely for cargo transportation, especially for shipping coal.

Construction started on the rail link in July, 2009 and is expected to end this November, according to the schedule for the project.