A plan for building 9 inter-city railways connecting Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang, and other prefecture-level cities in Hebei, has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

　　People in Beijing, Tianjin municipality and Hebei province will soon find it easier to travel across that greater region of northern China as an inter-city railway is being built between them.

　　A plan for building 9 inter-city railways connecting Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang, and other prefecture-level cities in Hebei, has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Beijing News reported on Tuesday.

　　The 9 railways have a total length of about 1,100 kilometers, and the project will require an initially estimated investment of about 247 billion yuan (around 35.8 billion USD).

　　The goal is to realize a one-hour commute circle between those cities by 2020.

　　Some of the projects are already under construction, including a highly expected railway line connecting Beijing-Capital International Airport and Beijing's new international airport which is being built in Daxing District. The line, together with the Beijing-Bazhou inter-city railway, will be completed by 2019, while the rest of them will be done by 2020.

　　Authorities say that the plan will help relieve some functions of Beijing as the capital and promote the concerted development of Beijing, Tianjin municipality and Hebei province.