​Beijing, Dec 24 (IANS) After 28 years of talks between Beijing and Moscow, construction has finally started on a modern highway bridge connecting China and Russia across the Heilongjiang river, the first between the two countries.

The main span of the bridge is 1,283 metres and links Heihe to the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The bridge is an important international link and part of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. It will strengthen cooperation between the neighbouring two regions," said a Chinese official.

Costing 2.5 billion yuan (about $360 million), the bridge will open in October 2019.

Passenger flow between the two cities is expected to reach 1.5 million a year by 2020, double the current figure. Cargo volume will reach three million tones by then, ten times today's figure.