BIROBIDZHAN, Russia - The construction of a cross-border railway bridge linking Russia and China officially began on Wednesday in Russia's far eastern Jewish Autonomous Oblast.

The 6735-meter bridge will connect Tongjiang Port in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province with the Russian village of Nizhneleninskoye.

Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui and Russian Deputy Transport Minister Alexey Tsydenov attended the commencement ceremony in Nizhneleninskoye.

The bridge, designed with an annual passage capacity of 21 million tons, is expected to highly improve the transportation conditions of Tongjiang port and offer a shortcut between China and Russia's Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Amur Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Magadan Oblast and Sakha (Yakut) Republic.

The construction is forecast to take two and a half years with an estimated total investment of 2.583 billion Chinese yuan (about $422 million).

China Railway Engineering Corporation, the Heilongjiang provincial government, and the Far East & Baikal Region Development Fund Open Joint Stock Company are the project's investors.