A new rail network is to link Sao Paulo with its neighboring city of Guarulhos, where Cumbica International Airport is situated, in a bid to ease pressure on the capital's Congonhas Airport where 200 people died recently in Brazil's worst ever air disaster.

Officials say 150 regular flights out of Congonhas are being transferred to Cumbica airport following the tragedy.

And it is planned that in two months' time, Congonhas, which is situated near downtown Sao Paulo, will stop operating flight transfers, and serve only as a final landing point and initial departure point.

The project was initiated after the July 17 air disaster in which 200 people were killed when an Airbus A320 operated by local airline TAM left the runway and slammed into a building while landing at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo.

The cost of constructing the railway lines is estimated at 3.4 billion reais (US$1.8 billion) and the project is due to be finished in 2010. Trains will travel at 100 kph on the new railway, said the state government.

One of the lines, called the "Airport Express", will take passengers from Sao Paulo straight to Cumbica in 20 minutes and will be able to transport 20,000 people per day. Another line will also connect with neighborhoods in Guarulhos.