Preliminary construction of a railway from Golmud in Qinghai province to Kuerle in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region began on Sunday, regional rail authorities said.

The 1,214 km electric-powered link traverses Xinjiang's Altun Mountain. It is expected to be completed in five years at a cost of 37.6 billion yuan ($6.13 billion). The railway will handle eight pairs of passenger trains a day and 26 million metric tons of cargo a year.

The railway is the third one linking Xinjiang to the inland provinces, other than the Lanzhou (Gansu province)-Xinjiang and Hami-Ejin (Inner Mongolia autonomous region) lines. It forms part of the regional rail network and a significant link in the overland energy route toward west Asia.