Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet on Sunday opened discussions on plans to construct a high-speed rail line linking Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coastline to the Red Sea port of Eilat.

Such a "passenger rail line will make the trip in two hours. As well, they'll be a freight line, to transfer goods from Asia to Europe," Netanyahu told the assembled ministers at the beginning of the session.

The 350 km project is part of a comprehensive 100 billion shekels (about 26.6 billion U.S. dollars), five-year push to revamp the country's transport infrastructure.

"This is attracting great interest by the world powers, China and India, as well as others in the State of Israel," Netanyahu said, "and therefore there's strategic national, and international importance in establishing such a line."

Netanyahu said he considered the project "the implementation of a vision to connect the entire country, in parallel with development of the transportation infrastructure to the north."

Netanyahu has suggested that such an overland path via the Red Sea to the urban center of the country, including ports in Haifa and Ashdod, could greatly shorten the current route Asian shippers use to reach the Mediterranean via Egypt's Suez Canal, saving time and high canal-use fees.

"These are great tidings, ones that will dramatically affect the country for the next 50 years," Netanyahu said, according to a Prime Minister's Office (PMO) statement released Sunday.

The prime minister said that such a route, which would enable " changing the face of reality in Eilat and the south of the country. "

The Israeli government wants to double the Negev's current population to 1.2 million by 2025, and hopes such a rail line would help spur regional development, and attract residents away from the congested center of the country.

As well, Eilat's hoteliers expect that such a plan would make the southern port more attractive to tourists, who currently are forced to either drive close to fours hours, or take a commuter flight to reach the city.