China on Wednesday announced completion of track-laying of 645 kilometers of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, accounting for 56 per cent of the total length of the world's highest railway which will connect the remote Himalayan region with the mainland.

Construction on the 1,12-kilometre Qinghai-Tibet railway is moving steadily toward Damxung County in central Tibet, according to the railway construction headquarters based in Lhasa, the regional capital.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is designed to connect Xining, capital city of Northwest China's Qinghai Province, with Lhasa.

The railway line, the first to link Tibet with rest of China, is expected to reach Lhasa sometime next year and it will be opened to traffic in July 2007, Liu Xinke, an official with the Qinghai-Tibet Railway construction under the Ministry of Railway said.