Progress has been made in the construction of Baotou-Yinchuan High-speed Railway (HSR) -- running from Baotou city in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Yinchuan city in Ningxia Hui autonomous region in Northwest China -- with land and property expropriation nearly completed, according to local media reports.

Local officials said the high-speed railway is one of the important components of the Beijing-Lanzhou HSR, which is part of China’s eight vertical and eight horizontal high-speed railway networks.

It is the main passenger artery connecting regions including North China and Northwest China, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos urban agglomerations.

It is also an important part of the intercity passenger transport network of the seven leagues and cities in the western part of Inner Mongolia including Hohhot, Baotou, Ordos and Ulaanqab.

The total length of the line is 419 kilometers, with the Inner Mongolia section at 402 kilometers and the design speed is 250 km/h.

The construction period is four years and the estimated investment is 47.7 billion yuan ($6.85 billion) -- with the Inner Mongolia section costing 45.3 billion yuan.