ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and Djibouti launched on Wednesday Africa's first modern electrified railway connecting their respective capitals.

The 752.7-km Ethiopia-Djibouti railway was inaugurated in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in a grand ceremony.

The railway has a designed hourly speed of 120 kilometers. It was constructed by China Railway Group and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation with a total investment of 4 billion U.S. dollars.

It is expected to reduce travel time from seven days on roads to about 10 hours, and provide landlocked Ethiopia with a faster access to the Djibouti port. There have also been high expectations on the railway to boost industrialization along its route.