BEIJING, May 13 -- China Railway Group Limited announced on Wednesday that one of its subsidiaries has won the Moscow-Kazan high-speed rail contract together with two Russian companies.

The consortium will jointly conduct surveying, regional development planning and design for the project between 2015 and 2016.

The contract is worth 20 billion rubles (about 2.42 billion yuan, or 395 million U.S. dollars).

A formal deal is expected to be inked at the end of May. China Railway Group is discussing coordination and project management with its Russian counterparts.

The high-speed railway linking Moscow and Kazan, capital of Tatarstan Republic, is scheduled to open in 2018 before the Russia FIFA World Cup. Travel will be shortened from the current 14 hours to 3.5 hours.

China Railway shares opened 3.8 percent higher on Wednesday.