An 18.23-km high-speed railway tunnel in East China's Zhejiang province is bored through on Monday. (Photo: Qianjiang Evening News)

BEIJING -- An 18.23-km high-speed railway tunnel in East China's Zhejiang province was bored through on Monday, the China Railway Construction Corporation Ltd said.

The completion of Dongming Tunnel, the longest high-speed railway tunnel in east China, laid a solid foundation for the Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou high-speed railway to be completed and put into service in 2021, the CRCC said.

The railway will link the cities of Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Taizhou, all in Zhejiang province. With a total length of 271 km and a designed speed of 350 km/h, the railway was among the first batch of public-private partnership pilot projects in China.