Hanoi to open China-funded elevated railway project

Construction of a China-funded elevated railway project running through the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi will start in the first half of next year, a company source said on Friday.

The commercial contract of the project was inked here on Friday by the Railway Bureau of the Vietnamese Communication Ministry and The Sixth Engineering Bureau of the China Railway Group.

The Chinese company is the contractor of the project and responsible for engineering, procurement and construction.

The project, with a total investment of 550 million U.S. dollars, is funded by 170-million-dollar Chinese government loans and 250-million-dollar export buyer's credit from the Export- Import Bank of China. The rest is raised by the Vietnamese side.

The elevated railway line runs 13 kilometers in Hanoi with 12 stations. The construction of the project is expected to take 36 months. When completed, it will improve the traffic situation in Hanoi.

Hanoi does not have any subway or elevated railway line now. Its streets are packed with motorbikes during rush hours of the day.

(2009-05-23 source:china.org.cn)