China has started construction of a customs and immigration facility for a long-awaited bridge between Northeast China and Russian Far East, the first highway connection between the two nations. 

Photos: VCG

The bridge will link Heihe, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province with the Russian Far East city of Blagoveshchensk across the Heilongjiang (Amur) River.

The facility, being built in Heihe, covers an area of 263,900 square meters and is 1.1 kilometers from the on-ramp of the Heilongjiang-Blagoveshchensk Bridge. 

The inspection area for goods and passengers is a necessary facility of the road bridge, news website chinanews.com reported. With an investment of 297 million yuan ($44.24 million), construction is scheduled to be completed by October 2019. 

"Once the inspection facility is finished and opened, it will significantly boost the capacity of Heihe and help the border city play a vital role in the building of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor," Heihe official Ma Li said. It could also become an important economic driver in Heilongjiang's further opening-up to Russia, Ma added.

The new customs and immigration station is expected to handle 6.2 million tons of cargo and 2.95 million travelers each year, the report said.

The Heilongjiang-Blagoveshchensk Bridge is a 1,284-meter cable-stayed bridge spanning the Heilongjiang River, and is regarded as an important cross-border connectivity infrastructure project between China and Russia. Construction began in December 2016, which is expected to open to traffic at the end of 2019. 

In 2018, trade volume between Heilongjiang and Russia is estimated to have grown 65 percent year-on-year, chinanews.com reported.