Workers configure box girders of the western section of the Rizhao-Lankao Railway, which passes across Qufu South Station and Jining North Station. [Photo/iqilu.com]

Two high-speed railways, the Rizhao-Lankao Railway and the Jinan-Zaozhuang Railway, will pass Jining in East China's Shandong province, helping the city upgrade its transportation infrastructure, as well as form closer ties with other regions.

The western section of the Rizhao-Lankao Railway is currently under construction and workers have recently finished configuring all the box girders. The progress is well on schedule, with the railway expected to start operating by the end of 2021.

The 245.6-kilometer route is the fourth cross-province railway line in Shandong. It has a designed speed of 350km per hour and is planned to pass across seven stations, including Qufu South Station and Jining North Station.

The construction of the Jinan-Zaozhuang Railway is scheduled to begin in the first half of this year. It is around 269 km long and will stop at nine cities in Shandong, including Qufu and Zoucheng, both of which are county-level cities administered by Jining.

Upon completion, the two railways will connect with the high-speed railway network in other areas, such as the Yangtze River Delta region and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, improving the infrastructure in southwestern Shandong and promoting regional development to a great extent.