A new logistics facility at Yuzhnouralsk, a Russian city on the New Eurasian Land Bridge, recently held groundbreaking ceremony with ambitions to become a freight hub offering convenience to China's western trades, Xinhua reports.

Yuzhnouralsk Logistics Centre is located at the border of Asia and Europe, next to Kazakhstan, where five railways meet. After completion, the facility will be a hub on the international freight network from China's Urumqi, via Kazakhstan's Astana to Russia's Chelyabinsk Oblast.

Xinjiang Autonomous Region deputy governor Shi Dagang China, Russia and Kazakhstan will turn the facility into a regional hub in three to five years which will be able to handle 10 million tonnes annually.

According to the plan, Yuzhnouralsk Logistics Centre will cover an area of 182 hectares, and will be completed by November 2014. The facility will offer rail and road container transport, warehousing and customs clearance.

The governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast said the project has won the support of members of the Shanghai Cooperation organisation and both the leaders of China and Russia. He thinks the facility will unveil business opportunities for Chelyabinsk and will hopefully turn the region into a hub for trade between Asia and Europe.

The Urumqi-Astana-Chelyabinsk cargo transport route is said to be one of the most convenient way of moving exports from China's Xinjiang to Russia, West Asian countries and even Europe. In the future, China's exported products will be transported on road from Xinjiang to Kazakhstan and Russia, then be distributed by the Yuzhnouralsk Logistics Centre to other Russian and European cities.