Progress has been made in the construction of the Baotou-Yinchuan High-speed Railway (HSR) – which will run from Baotou in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Yinchuan in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region – with the project's environment impact assessment report officially being approved by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The official approval of the report marks the completion of all supporting documents that need to be approved by national ministries and commissions before the project starts.

The high-speed railway is an important component of the Beijing-Lanzhou HSR, which is part of China's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network.

It is the main passenger artery connecting regions including North China and Northwest China, as well as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and 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 Baotou-Yinchuan HSR will be 115 kilometers (75 km in Alshaa and 40 km in Ningxia Hui autonomous region), and the design speed will be 200 km per hour.

The estimated investment is set to be 6.9 billion yuan ($1.08 billion).