China and Kazakhstan will jointly build a high-speed railway connecting Astana and Almaty. The project will be completed in 2015, the Kazakhstan Railways President Askar Mamin said Tuesday in Beijing, Kazakhstan Today reports.
Trains on the 1,050-kilometer-long double-track planned line connecting Kazakhstan's capital Astana with its biggest city Almaty, will run at a maximum speed of 350 km per hour, serving 5 million passengers annually, said Mamin at a luncheon party with entrepreneurs from China and Kazakhstan, Xinhua reported.
Experts in China estimate that 65 percent of the line will run along the ground, with the rest 370 km made up of bridges and elevated railways.
Mamin, who is accompanying Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on a three-day visit to China, said a memorandum of understanding had been signed with China's railways authorities.
According to the memo, the line will use the most advanced Chinese technology and new generation locomotives and cars.
Also, design institutes in both countries will work together on a feasibility study, while specialist firms from China and Kazakhstan will jointly construct the railway.
As informed earlier, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev arrived in Beijing on Monday afternoon for a three-day state visit.
During the visit, he expressed the wish to further cooperate with China in more projects in high-tech and railways and road-building sectors. He said the Astana to Almaty high-speed line is just one of them.