A Chinese engineering company has completed the first train tunnel longer than 1,000 meters along the Lao railway.
Nateuy No. 1 Tunnel is located in the northern Lao province of Luang Namtha bordering China.
Huang Zongwen, a senior official with the China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group, which oversees the tunnel’s construction, told Xinhua the construction of the 1,158-meter-long tunnel started in June 2017.
“That the tunnel passes soft rocks all the way in the mountain brought some difficulties in construction and especially, affected the digging pace,” Mr Huang said.
In December 2017, the 301-meter Ban Somsanook No. 2 Tunnel in Vientiane Province, bored by Sino Corporation Engineering Bureau 15 Co., Ltd., became the first completed tunnel on the railway route, and the first road-and-railway tunnel in Laos.
The China-Laos railway has a total length of more than 414 km with bridges and tunnels comprising 60%. It links the Mohan-Boten border checkpoint in Luang Namtha and Vientiane Capital.
Trains on the route is designed to run at 160 kph. The railway is expected to be fully operational in December 2021.
Source: Xinhua News
