FUZHOU -- A pair of 500-meter steel rails was successfully laid on a concrete bed at Putian railway station Thursday in East China's Fujian province, marking the beginning of track-laying work on the country's first sea-crossing high-speed railway.

The 277-km railway links the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the port city of Xiamen. With a designed speed of 350 km per hour, it is expected to slash the travel time between the two cities within one hour.

Using an advanced machine, workers are able to lay the left and right tracks at the same time and nearly double their efficiency, said Zhang Xiaofeng, a project manager with China Railway 11th Bureau Group Co Ltd.

At the current pace of about 6 km of track laid per day, the entire track-laying work is expected to finish by the end of this year, according to Zhang Zhipeng, an executive with Dongnan Coastal Railway Fujian Co Ltd.

The railway construction project is slated for completion in 2023.