The 2,066-kilometer line will cut travel time to 10 hours from at least 37 hours upon completion, which is expected to be in 2014, Oriental Morning Post reported today.
It will be the longest high-speed rail line in the world.
The exact date for construction has not yet been set.
Stops on the route will include provincial capitals such as Hangzhou in Zhejiang, Nanchang in Jiangxi, Changsha in Hunan and Guiyang in Guizhou, the report said.
The rail link is one of many projects in the area awaiting a green light from the central government as China embarks on a construction spree intended to create jobs and help stimulate the economy during the downturn.
Construction of a high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shenyang in Liaoning Province, worth 70 billion yuan (US$10.22 billion), will start in June. In addition, a high-speed rail line between Shanghai and Hangzhou has been approved by the central government and construction will start next month.
More than 90 per cent of the 1,200km high-speed rail line connecting Shanghai and Beijing has been completed. When the railway is completed, the trip will take five hours instead of the present 11 hours.
The ministry has said it plans to have 120,000km of rail lines in service by 2020, of which 16,000km would be dedicated passenger lines.
By the end of this year, China will have more than 79,000km of rail lines. Achieving the 2020 target will require investment of about 5 trillion yuan (US$727 billion), the Ministry of Railways said in an earlier report.