Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway (MTR) announced Tuesday its shareholders had backed the system's proposed merger with the Kowloon-Canton Railway, another railway company in Hong Kong.

Independent shareholders representing 1.26 billion shares were entitled to vote for or against the resolution at the MTR Corporation's extraordinary general meeting Tuesday.

As a connected party of the transaction, the government of Hong Kong and its associates with 4.33 billion shares were not entitled to vote at the meeting. A simple majority was needed to pass the resolution.

A total of 308,421,208 shares were voted by independent shareholders, with 82.29 percent for and 17.71 percent against the merger.

Eva Cheng, secretary for Transport Housing of Hong Kong, said the merger will benefit the community.

"The merger could create synergy and enhance economic effectiveness, ultimately to passengers' benefit. We welcome the extraordinary general meeting's vote to support this proposal," she said.

"The two railway companies are making final preparations for the merger. We will also introduce to the Legislative Council as soon as possible the related subsidiary legislation for the designation of an appointed date for the merger," she said.

"Our target is to give effect to the merger before the end of this year. About 2.8-million daily rail passenger trips will benefit from a fare reduction from day one of the merger," she added.

MTRC Chairman Raymond Ch'ien said the merger is a transaction that benefits all stakeholders including the public, MTR shareholders and employees of the two rail companies.

"We are very pleased that our independent shareholders have voted in favor of the transaction which will now enable us to proceed with the final preparations for integrating the two operations," he said.