Premier Li Keqiang paid a visit to a construction site for a new high-speed railway line in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province on Thursday morning, and chatted with workers there.

The Changsha site will be part of a new line linking Shanghai and Kunming, with its 2,264-km length making it the longest rail line between East and west China once it is completed in 2016. The high-speed line will save 28 hours for passengers traveling between Shanghai and Kunming.

Li told workers at the site they are making a significant contribution to the country's development and praised their careers as "remarkable".

The railway line is designed to pass through several poverty-stricken areas in Central and west China. Li told the project managers that the construction of railways should take both economic benefits and social justice into consideration. The new railway line will help impoverished farmers from remote mountainous regions travel to cities for work and higher incomes, he added.

Li said the high-speed line will not only help to narrow the economic gap between the east and west regions but also reduce the emotional distance between people in the different regions.

He also praised the construction company's efforts in promoting rail products and equipment abroad.

More than 291.8 billion yuan ($46.9 billion) will be invested in the project, excluding the cost of the Shanghai to Hangzhou section, which went into service in 2010.

The construction site is close to the Changsha South Railway Station.