Chinanews, Beijing, Dec. 7 – The preparatory team of the Beijing-Shanghai Passenger Train Company issued a bidding invitation notification on Thursday inviting companies to participate in the construction, supervision and technical consultation for the project. The bidding will end on December 17, the Beijing-based Jinghua Times reported.Both domestic and foreign companies can bid for the project’s technical consultation, while bidders that are responsible for construction and supervision will be limited to domestic companies only. After the bidding, a group of experts that come from various fields will make assessments of all bidders. The project is scheduled to start in January next year.The Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will contain 21 stops and the project will cover a total distance of 1,318 kilometers. The running speed of the train will be designed at 300-350 kilometers an hour. When finished, it will take only five hours to travel from Beijing to Shanghai.The Ministry of Railways (MOR) will provide part of the construction fund and the rest of the fund will come from investors and various bonds. Currently, it is known that MOR will provide 78.9% of the fund, far higher than the 51% as reported by media.The Beijing-Shanghai express rail project will involve huge investment and the construction period will last for 5 years. So potential bidders should have a strong financial background and good professional expertise. MOR plans to have one foreign engineering consultancy company and two other domestic companies to jointly develop the project, with Chinese companies taking the lead.