The Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou high-speed railway in East China's Zhejiang province completed construction on Tuesday, and is estimated to start operation by the end of this year, CCTV News reported.

With a total length of 266.9 km and a designed speed of 350 km/h, the railway was among the first batch of public-private partnership pilot projects in China.

As of May this year, a total of 38.8 billion yuan ($6 billion) had been invested in the project since 2017.

Once put into service this year, the railway will be part of the transportation network in the Yangtze River Delta, connecting urban areas of Hangzhou with coastal cities.

Time spent from Hangzhou to Taizhou by railway will be nearly halved from two hours to one, according to CCTV News.

The railway also plays a significant role for Taizhou and Wenling joining the Yangtze River economic belt, and pushes forward the integrated development of the delta.