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Construction kicked off of China's largest railway station in southwestern Shanghai recently, a move local officials say will strengthen the city's status as a national transportation hub.

Shanghai South Railway Station, featuring a wheel-like, glass-and-steel design, will cost 3.2 billion yuan (US$385 million) and take more than two-and-a-half years to complete, with the national Ministry of Railways and the Shanghai government picking up the tab.

Covering more than 60 hectares of land at the intersection of Humin and Guilin roads in Minhang District, the new station will connect to 13 rail lines leading to other parts of the country.

"The round shape not only looks beautiful, but is also very functional as it can connect to roads running in different directions," said Gao Huiwen, a spokes-woman for the local East China Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., which cooperated with France-based AREP design company to draft blueprints for the structure.

The existing south station, which sits near the planned site, now handles only a few trains to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. The old station will be demolished when the new one is complete, officials say.

After the new station opens around the end of 2004, it will handle as many as 144 trains on southbound routes. That will alleviate the burden on the downtown Shanghai New Railway Station, which will be left for north-west traffic.