ZHENGZHOU - Construction on a heavy-haul railway that will link major coal producers in Shanxi province with a sea outlet in eastern Shandong province began on Saturday.

The Luliang-Rizhao freight railway, being built with an investment of 99.8 billion yuan ($15.8 billion), will run through the provinces of Shanxi, Henan and Shandong at a total length of 1,260 km.

The railway is expected to ease road traffic bottlenecks created by transporting large amounts of coal from Shanxi to coastal areas.

The railway is slated to go into operation by 2014 with an annual transportation capacity of 200 million tonnes of coal.