(Yicai Global) Feb. 2 -- A consortium led by Fosun International has begun laying tracks for China's No. 1 high-speed railway route that is controlled by private capital in eastern China's Taizhou.

Private sector partners, led by the Shanghai-headquartered conglomerate, make up 51 percent of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway's capital base, Xinhua News Agency reported. The capital base is 30 percent of the total investment of CNY44.9 billion (USD6.9 billion), based on a feasibility study.

The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou intercity railway is one of China's eight private-public partnerships involving railways. Tracks should all be laid by June and the project is expected to be ready by December. The route will be almost 267 kilometers long with a designed speed of 350 km per hour.

The new railway should make the journey between Hangzhou and Taizhou as short as one hour instead of two hours with better connectivity to other cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Editor: Emmi Laine