VICE premier Zeng Peiyan has been appointed to head a team to supervise the construction of a high-speed railway between Beijing and Shanghai, the China News Service reported today.

The team will review proposed plans, oversee the construction process, coordinate with ministerial and regional authorities and collect information about the railway project, the report said.

The high-speed rail link will more than halve the travel time between Shanghai and the capital from 12 hours to less than five hours when it is completed. Trains will be able to reach a speed of up to 350 kilometers an hour on the 200 billion yuan (US$26.67 billion) track.

Construction of the 1,318-kilometer railway is scheduled to start in December. Twenty-one stations will be set up along the line, according to an earlier notice from the Railway Ministry.

The project is the biggest investment in the country's long-term railway development. It has attracted some of the world's largest magnates in railway technology to vie for part of the project, including France's Alstom, Canada's Bombadier, Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Germany's Siemens.

The Shanghai terminal of the new railway will be built in an area near Hongqiao International Airport.