China is undertaking a feasibility study for building a new high-speed railway along the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Chengdu, West China Metropolis Daily reports on Monday.

After completion, the east-west high-speed railway will link 22 major cities along the Yangtze River, starting from Shanghai, running through Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan and Chongqing, and ending in Chengdu.

The new line has a design speed of 350 km per hour and it is called "double track" of Shanghai-Wuhan- Chengdu high-speed line, the current east-west high-speed railway artery.

According to the transportation corridor planning of the Yangtze River economic belt (2014-2020) released by China's State Council, two high-speed rail lines will appear in the region. One is from Shanghai, passing through Nanjing, Hefei, Wuhan and Chongqing, to Chengdu; the other is from Shanghai, running through Hangzhou, Nanchang, Changsha and Guiyang, to Kunming.

In fact, since China launched a new round of adjustment of rail running map in July 2014, a bullet train from Shanghai to Chengdu has been operated, with a speed of 200 km per hour. But according to the plan, a high-speed train to run at a speed of 300 km per hour along the Yangzte River economic belt is the goal. 

Due to the different landforms and construction standards, a train from Shanghai to Chengdu needs to run 16 hours. In addition, the current Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu high-speed line faces problems such as passenger traffic pressure, lack of transport capacity and difficulties to increase speed.