People work inside a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in Moscow, capital of Russia, Jan. 25, 2019. Since August 2017, China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) has been building a 4.6-km section and three stations on the "Large Circle Line" in Moscow, which will be completed by the end of 2020. Photo: Xinhua

China Railway Construction Corporation International (CRCCI) announced on Tuesday that it has inked a construction deal to build a section of the Moscow-Kazan Highway project in Russia. The project is worth 5.2 billion yuan ($767 million).

This is the first time that a Chinese company has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a national highway project in Russia, CRCCI said in a press release sent to the Global Times.

The Moscow-Kazan Highway is part of the Russian section of the Europe-Western China Transport Corridor, a megaproject that connects Russia, Kazakhstan and China.

CRCCI will be in charge of building a 107-kilometer-long section of the Moscow-Kazan Highway, with a total length of 729 kilometers.

It is expected that by its completion in 2024, the travel time from Moscow to Kazan, the sixth-largest city in Russia, will be shortened from 12 hours to 6.5 hours. 

The Moscow-Kazan Highway will pass through the Moscow region, the Vladimir region and the Nizhny Novgorod region.

CRCCI said winning the Moscow-Kazan Highway tender demonstrated closer Sino-Russian collaboration in building the Europe-Western China Transport Corridor.